Yesterday we attended the official unveiling of SABIA, Spain’s first conversational grocery platform, to learn about a new way of doing healthy online shopping: more personalized, more mindful, and guided.
The platform, founded by Dori L. Nieves, proposes a model that goes beyond traditional online grocery shopping. In SABIA, the user not only navigates categories or searches products in a catalog, but can converse with the platform itself to resolve questions, compare options, and receive recommendations tailored to their needs, preferences, and wellness goals.
The ecosystem, as they called it during the presentation, combines three main pillars: an online grocery store focused on healthy products, an AI-based conversational interface, and a community of professionals linked to nutrition, health, well-being and healthy lifestyle habits.
“Buying healthy food shouldn’t be a hurdle-filled journey. Today, the consumer who wants to take care of their health basically has to become an expert in multiple health areas; they can’t rely on the traditional system… but nor can they rely on the massive amount of information available, which can be overwhelming. They face too many labels, too many marketing messages — many of them contradictory — and too many decisions that aren’t always easy to interpret. SABIA is an Artificial Intelligence that isn’t designed to add to the noise, but to filter it. To simplify that process and give the user the sense that they’re choosing easily, but with criteria, with information, and with guidance,” said Dori during the presentation.
The project emerges at a moment when the relationship between food, health and technology is transforming consumer habits. More and more people are seeking products aligned with their needs, whether for digestive health, athletic performance, hormonal well-being, intolerances, family meals, specific diets, or simply the desire to shop more consciously in the face of a traditional system that keeps information opaque and the giant ultraprocessed foods industry. However, that search is often accompanied by confusion, information overload, and difficulty distinguishing truly suitable products from unclear commercial messaging.
An Ecosystem for Retail
In response to this scenario, SABIA envisions a shopping experience where artificial intelligence acts as a conversational guide. The user can ask which products fit a given need, what gluten-free options exist, which foods can support a sports routine, how to organize a healthier shopping list, or which alternatives best fit their daily habits. SABIA remembers the conversations and user preferences and can even complete the purchase on their behalf.
Beyond its technological component, SABIA also includes SabiaConnect, a community of experts and collaborators linked to well-being, nutrition, health, and healthy living habits. Within this ecosystem, professionals can participate as prescribers, content creators, advisors, or collaborators, contributing knowledge and guidance to users.
This community also gives rise to the figure of the Nutriwarriors, professionals and specialized profiles who can play an active role in the ecosystem, recommending products, sharing knowledge, and creating new avenues of collaboration around healthy shopping.
“We don’t want artificial intelligence to replace human judgment, but to help organize information and make it more useful. Moreover, SABIA, through connect, connects you with the human professional best suited to your need. SABIA is designed as a technology that isn’t a threat, but puts humans at the center of purchasing decisions and guidance,” explained Dori.
The platform features a broad catalog of products and seeks to differentiate itself from traditional food e-commerce through a proposition centered on transparency, quality, and usefulness for the consumer. Its goal is to facilitate access to products and solutions related to well-being, preventing the shopping experience from being reduced solely to price, promotions, or impulse buying.
“SABIA isn’t understood only as a supermarket. We’re building an ecosystem where technology, product, and expert knowledge coexist. Healthy shopping needs less noise and more context. That’s why it’s so important for us to surround ourselves with professionals who help translate nutritional information into real decisions for people,” added the founder.
