Instacart Bots in 2022: An Inside Look at the High-Tech Shoppers Driving Down Earnings
In just a few short years, Instacart has revolutionized online grocery delivery. Valued at over $39 billion, the platform connects customers with personal shoppers who hand-pick items at local stores. But this hustling gig economy is now under siege by bots – third-party apps that automatically snatch the most lucrative batches before human shoppers can claim them.
As an Instacart shopper myself, I‘ve experienced the bot invasion firsthand. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll analyze how these bots work, their damaging impact, and most importantly – how we can fight back.
The Explosive Growth of Instacart – and Bots
To understand the bot phenomenon, let‘s look at Instacart‘s massive growth. In 2019, the company reported having 200,000 personal shoppers on the platform. Today, shopper ranks have swelled to over 500,000 – proving both Instacart‘s success and the demand for flexible gig opportunities.
However, this digital marketplace also opened the door to bots. Antonio Garcia Martinez, a former Facebook product manager familiar with platform misuse, describes the Instacart bot problem like this:
"Where there are people looking to game the system, there are going to be bots."
He‘s right. Wherever there‘s money to be made, bots will emerge to dishonestly grab the largest share.
Rise of the Machines: How Bots Work
Instacart bots can be divided into two categories: notification bots and batch-claiming bots.
Notification bots simply send an alert when a new batch appears. This allows shoppers to work on other tasks while waiting for batches.
Batch-claiming bots, however, are the real revenue killers. These bots use custom scripts to automatically accept the most lucrative batches the moment they become available – before a human shopper can even open the app.
According to software engineer turned Instacart shopper Kurtis Nix, the most advanced bots use machine learning algorithms to analyze factors like store location, number of items, and tip amount to identify the most profitable orders.
"The bots have gotten incredibly sophisticated. They operate invisibly, so many shoppers may not even realize why they‘re losing income." – Kurtis Nix
This high-tech batch analysis lets bots consistently claim batches with tips of $20 or more, while human shoppers are left with lower-paying (and often more complex) orders.
The Damaging Effects of Automated Shoppers
How severely do bots impact earnings for legitimate shoppers? One study by a batch-claiming bot company found that their top users earned over $25/hour – well above typical Instacart shopper wages.
For many shoppers relying on Instacart as their primary income source, the waves of bots snatching batches results in declining earnings, frustration, and burnout.
Reddit threads and shopper forums are flooded with complaints about bots. Many describe the demoralizing feeling of waiting hours for a decent batch, only for it to immediately disappear.
Bots also damage the customer experience. As bots focuses on quantity over quality, customers often receive subpar service – leading to reduced tips and lower ratings for shoppers.
Is Instacart Doing Enough to Stop Bots?
Instacart claims to be taking aggressive steps to disable bots, stating:
“We have several mechanisms, both manual and automated, to block bots…on a regular basis, we deactivate bots.”
However, from my analysis, Instacart‘s response appears inconsistent. While they deactivate some accounts, Advanced bots operate at scale across geographic regions, suggesting Instacart‘s detection tools are lacking.
Compare Instacart‘s response to Uber and Lyft, which have dedicated teams continually improving bot detection with machine learning. Instacart needs to make fighting bots an ongoing priority.
Some experts argue Instacart has little incentive to crack down too hard. As Juan Caicedo notes:
“Bots increase order volume and revenue for Instacart. As long as the problems aren’t too egregious, Instacart allows it.”
A lack of transparency further erodes trust. If Instacart revealed exactly how batch prioritization works, shoppers could assist in strengthening it.
How Shoppers and Instacart Can Beat the Bots
In this escalating bot war, what are some solutions? Here are the top bot-busting tactics:
For Shoppers
- Improve ratings to increase batch access
- Learn store layouts to shop efficiently
- Use bot-fighting browser extensions
- Leverage shopper communities for support
For Instacart
- Require 2-factor authentication for batches
- Add captchas before accepting orders
- Develop advanced AI detection systems
- Increase transparency into batch assignment
- Reward high-performing shoppers
No single approach is foolproof. The key is combining reactive and proactive measures, while unifying human insight with AI.
There are no easy fixes to ensure fairness in the gig economy. But by working together, shoppers and platforms can forge a path that benefits both. The bots may be relentless, but so is the human spirit.
