Samsung's 2025 Bespoke fridges will use AI to let you replenish your groceries

Early January is such a difficult time to be a tech writer. You just want to stitch off and relax in the Summer sun, but all the big tech companies are announcing new products and services in the leadup to CES.

Samsung has today announced a new partnership with Instacart in the US, which will allow its Bespoke smart fridges to monitor the levels of food inside, and add items that are running low to your Instacart app so you can order what you need directly from the fridge.

The service will only be available in the US and initially only with Samsung's 2025 Bespoke refrigerator models, but it will come to existing AI Family Hub fridges that have an AI Vision camera inside later this year.

“Samsung is working tirelessly to enable a more convenient home experience for our users with innovative technologies,” said Jeong Seung Moon, EVP and Head of the Consumer Experience Team for the Digital Appliances (DA) Business at Samsung Electronics. “The combination of Samsung’s key technology and Instacart’s outstanding online grocery shopping platform will be a great example of how partnership can create a new level of convenience.”

Samsung's food recognition technology can detect up to 37 different food items, including fresh fruit and vegetables, but can't detect anything stored in food bins or the freezer.

Also, looking at how packed my fridge has been over the Christmas period, I imagine it would struggle unless everything is well spaced out and easy to view.

But the idea sounds interesting. We don't have Instacart in Australia, and neither of the big supermarkets seem to be the type of company to jump onto technology like this with an open API that would let people shop automatically from their fridges.

But who knows? It's definitely a more interesting use of AI than digital portraits, so I'm keen to see if this ever makes it to Australia.