• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, October 12, 2020

With Americans preparing their own meals more than anytime in recent history, 360i and client Kroger have developed a robot to suggest recipes and help them plan and buy the ingredients necessary to cook them.

The aptly named Chefbot features a user-friendly, conversational interface designed to help meal-time planning and minimize food waste by utilizing AI technology capable of analyzing photos to recognize nearly 2,000 ingredients.

"Chefbot illustrates how marketers can tap into augmented intelligence to deliver true service and value," said 360i Chief Creative Officer Menno Kluin notes, adding, ""Innovation often happens during times of seismic change. By leveraging visual AI in a bold new way, Kroger is bringing their promise of Fresh for Everyone to life while addressing pain points and helping shoppers maximize their purchases."

Here's a description of how Chefbot works:

• Snap: Users snap a photo of three ingredients from their refrigerator or pantry

• Tweet: Users tweet their photo to @KrogerChefbot. Through artificial intelligence, Chefbot identifies ingredients and then scans thousands of unique recipes on Kroger.com

• Cook: Within seconds, Chefbot responds to the user's original tweet to deliver a list of personalized recipe recommendations based on the selected ingredients