The US retail company Albertsons has introduced an AI-based tool that helps its staff in distribution centres to assess the quality of fruit and vegetables more consistently when receiving goods. The patent-pending system, called Intelligent Quality Control, is designed to standardise and speed up this process in the supply chain.
The retail company, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, developed the tool in collaboration with its technology and supply chain teams. The solution utilises Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise, including Vision AI and Gemini models, to evaluate images of produce against the company’s internal quality standards. Quality inspectors upload an image of the fruits into the system for this purpose.
Albertsons is currently using the new system in selected distribution centres. Initially, it is inspecting strawberries as well as red and green grapes. At a later stage, the US retail company plans to extend the application to the entire berry range, roll it out nationwide and also use it for other fresh produce.
Initially for berries and grapes at selected locations
The tool evaluates the visual characteristics of the fruit in the images and issues a recommendation, which the inspector approves. According to Albertsons, the quality assurance tool is designed to standardise the assessment of produce across different staff members and shifts, speed up decision-making and provide additional data for later analysis. Evan Rainwater, Executive Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Albertsons, speaks about early positive results. However, the retail company has not quantified the exact extent of these improvements.
The US retail giant has previously worked with AI on other applications. In 2025, Albertsons had introduced an ‘Ask AI’ tool based on Google Cloud’s Conversational Commerce Agent. The tool is accessible via the search bar in all Albertsons apps and is designed to help customers discover products more quickly, plan meals and find suitable additions.
