Instacart wants to replace army of gig shoppers with robots

A shopper fulfills an online shopping request for an Instacart customer, in Foster City, California. Automation would be a major departure for Instacart, which currently relies on hundreds of thousands of gig workers racing through supermarkets alongside shoppers more inclined to linger and browse. — Bay Area News Group/TNS

Instacart Inc has an audacious plan to replace its army of gig shoppers with robots – part of a long-term strategy to cut costs and put its relationship with supermarket chains on a sustainable footing.

The plan, detailed in documents reviewed by Bloomberg, involves building automated fulfillment centers around the US, where hundreds of robots would fetch boxes of cereal and cans of soup while humans gather produce and deli products. Some facilities would be attached to existing grocery stores while larger standalone centers would process orders for several locations, according to the documents, which were dated July and December.