Carrefour becomes Belgium's first retailer to sell groceries inside ChatGPT

Since 25 August 2026, Carrefour Belgium customers can shop directly inside ChatGPT. A first for a Belgian retailer, part of a wider shift: AI agents are becoming a purchase channel in their own right, not just a search tool. Here is what this launch changes, and what it signals for Belgian businesses.

1. An assistant that builds the basket for the customer

Carrefour Belgium partnered with Mealz.ai to build this prototype. Customers connect to ChatGPT, activate the plug-in, then call on the assistant in conversation via @Carrefour Belgique. Carrefour illustrates the use case with an example: a family of four, including a vegetarian and a child with a gluten intolerance, wants to plan a week's meals. The assistant immediately proposes a full basket, price included. The customer can adjust the list, then, after confirming, is automatically redirected to Carrefour's website to check out and pay.

2. The Bonus Card and preferences follow automatically

The link to the Carrefour Bonus Card happens without any extra step, so customers never miss a discount or a promotion. The assistant also remembers dietary preferences and intolerances for next time. On delivery, there are two options: in-store pickup via Carrefour Drive, or home delivery within 24 hours with Carrefour Delivery, available from €60 of purchases. Below that threshold, preparation and delivery fees may apply.

3. A trend that goes well beyond Carrefour

Carrefour Belgium is following Carrefour France, which launched the same assistant in March 2026, presented as a European first. Other international retailers have already gone down the same path, including Sephora, Gap, JD Sports and Walmart. The ground is fertile: according to a study cited by Carrefour, 42% of Belgians aged 16 to 74 were already using AI tools daily at the end of 2025, against a European average of 32.7%. Conversational commerce is no longer an isolated test, it is a channel Belgian customers already know.

4. What it means for Belgian SMEs

No SME needs to build its own ChatGPT plug-in to benefit from the same principle. What makes Carrefour's assistant useful, an agent connected to catalogue, stock and customer preferences, is achievable on a much smaller scale: on your own website, on WhatsApp, or simply in the answers ChatGPT already gives when a prospective customer asks about your sector. The real issue is not copying Carrefour, but preparing your catalogue and product information so an AI agent, yours or a third party's, can understand and recommend it correctly.

The AI lens, humans first

Carrefour's assistant executes precise tasks: building a list, checking stock, calculating a price. The strategy behind it, which data to expose, which promotions to push, how to handle a stock-out or an intolerance, stays defined and monitored by humans. AI executes. Expertise decides, and keeps watch over time. For an SME, the stakes are the same on a smaller scale: setting up a useful AI agent does not remove the need to measure its results and adjust it over time.