Meet Penny, the AI assistant from Pick n Pay's asap! that you can speak to

Pick n Pay’s asap! pioneers the country's first fully integrated AI-powered grocery shopping companion.

Online grocery shopping should become easier in South Africa from next week after Pick n Pay’s asap! announced plans to launch Penny, the country's first fully integrated AI-powered grocery shopping companion.

Instead of searching for products manually, scrolling and selecting through product lists, customers can ask Penny what they need using voice – in any language, text or photos, and she'll instantly build their basket.

The new feature is available in the latest version of the Pick n Pay asap! app and will be rolled out to all customers in July, commencing from 6 July 2026.

Using Penny, customers can: shop conversationally in multiple languages, dictate their shopping list using voice notes, upload photos of handwritten shopping lists or a list of ingredients from a recipe, snap products they want to order, photograph ingredients already in their fridge and ask for meal ideas, ask for recipes and instantly add ingredients to their basket, suggest ingredient substitutions and help plan meals, budget, or provide entertaining meal and drinks ideas.