Key points
- According to Grab Indonesia's release (3 July 2026), the AI assistant in GrabMerchant can scan printed menus, write menu descriptions, help with promos, and help reply to reviews.
- Treat a scanned menu as a draft: check names, prices, options, categories, and items you no longer sell before publishing.
- Descriptions and photos are a promise to customers. Indonesia's Consumer Protection Law bans untrue or misleading claims, including about prices and discounts.
- Before you accept a promo suggestion, work out what's left per order after COGS with packaging and the app's commission. In Kazeer, COGS per item can be calculated from recipes.
Picture this: you've just signed your restaurant up for GrabFood with a printed menu of dozens of items. The AI assistant in the GrabMerchant app can scan that menu, write the descriptions, and suggest promos. The work goes faster. But what shows up in the app is your promise to customers. A misread price, an overblown description, or a promo that leaves almost nothing over is still yours to answer for.
This article covers what the assistant can help with, and what you need to check: the scanned menu, descriptions, photos, promos, and review replies.
Note: Facts about Grab's features come from Grab's official releases and blog posts linked below, as of October 2026. Feature names and screens in your app may differ. The parts about the law are a summary, not legal advice.
What the GrabMerchant AI assistant can do
Grab announced its AI Merchant Assistant on 9 April 2025 (opens in a new tab) as a chatbot in the GrabMerchant app, without naming the countries. In Indonesia, the assistant is covered in Grab Indonesia's release dated 3 July 2026 (opens in a new tab), written for GrabFood merchant partners. According to that release, the assistant uses your store's own sales data automatically, and merchants use it to:
- Turn a printed menu into a digital menu in the app (Menu Scanner).
- Write menu descriptions with AI (Description Generator).
- Help respond to customer reviews.
- Help plan promotions.
- Get guidance through an instant guidance button on the store insights page.
For questions about the sales recorded at your outlet's POS, see the article on asking Kazeer AI.
The release doesn't say whether every feature is available to every merchant. If you can't find one, ask the GrabMerchant help center.
The rule for all of these features: the AI suggests, you decide.
In Grab's write-up of its menu scanning tool (November 2024) (opens in a new tab), merchants take a picture of their physical menu, AI sorts the text into menu fields, and merchants review and edit before publishing. At that point it read only the title, description, price, and category. Menu options such as spice level or size weren't included, and Grab said accuracy across the languages it supports in the region was still being worked on.
So treat the scan as a draft. Check it line by line with the printed menu next to you:
| What to check | Example mistakes | How to check |
|---|
| Item name | Misread letters, abbreviations, a name the kitchen doesn't use | Read it through with your cook or cashier |
| Price | A missing zero, swapped prices, an old price | Match it to your latest price list |
| Options | Spice level, size, and extra sides not picked up | Add them yourself, with their prices |
| Category | Drinks under food, bundles under single items | Go through each category, then open your store page the way a customer would once it's live |
| Items you no longer sell | Still on the old paper menu | Delete or deactivate them before publishing |
If your price in the app differs from your outlet price, make sure you set that difference on purpose.
AI descriptions: honest and specific
According to Grab's 2024 write-up (opens in a new tab), the description tool uses the merchant's name, cuisine type, dish name, and dish images, plus keywords the merchant adds. At the time, the tool was listed as available in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam. For Indonesia, the Description Generator is named in the July 2026 release.
A useful description answers customers' questions before they ask:
- What's in it: the main ingredients and sides.
- Portion: how many people, how many pieces, or how many grams.
- Spice level, and whether it can come without sambal.
- How it's served: soup or sauce on the side, rice included or not.
Cut claims such as "no MSG", "no preservatives", "premium ingredients", "healthy", or "safe for kids" unless they're true and you can back them up. Praise such as "the best" or "guaranteed addictive" tells customers nothing. Replace it with what's in the dish and how much there is.
Law No. 8 of 1999 on Consumer Protection (opens in a new tab) covers this too:
- Article 8(1)(f): businesses may not sell goods that don't match what was promised on the label, in the description, or in advertising or sales promotion.
- Article 9(1): no offering goods untruthfully or as if they had a discount, a special price, a quality standard, or particular characteristics (point a), or using excessive words such as "safe" and "harmless" without full information (point j).
- Article 10: no untrue or misleading statements about price, use, or discounts and prizes on offer.
Example: AI draft: "The best special nasi goreng with hand-picked premium ingredients, healthy and MSG-free, guaranteed addictive!" After editing: "Nasi goreng with sweet soy sauce, a fried egg, shredded chicken, and crackers. Medium spicy, can be made not spicy. Serves one." The "healthy" and "MSG-free" claims were cut because the kitchen in this example can't prove them.
The July 2026 release doesn't mention a tool for making or changing menu photos with AI, and according to Grab's 2024 write-up, the menu scanner didn't bring in dish images at that point. So photos are still your job, with the same rule as descriptions: what arrives must match what the customer saw.
- Photograph dishes your own kitchen actually made, in the usual portion and packaging.
- Light edits are reasonable: cropping, straightening, adjusting brightness and contrast.
- Don't add sides, enlarge the portion, change the color of the food, or use an AI-made image as a dish photo.
- When the recipe, portion, or packaging changes, replace the photo.
Grab's release says the assistant uses your store's sales data, but you're the one who knows your COGS per item. Before you accept a promo suggestion, work out what's left per order after COGS and the app's commission.
Example: Every number below is an example, including the 20% commission. Use the commission rate that applies to your store.
| Per order (example) | Regular price | Promo price |
|---|
| Selling price | Rp30,000 | Rp25,000 |
| App commission (example 20%) | Rp6,000 | Rp5,000 |
| COGS including packaging | Rp12,000 | Rp12,000 |
| Left for other costs and profit | Rp12,000 | Rp8,000 |
How to read it: Rp30,000 − Rp6,000 − Rp12,000 = Rp12,000. At the promo price, Rp25,000 − Rp5,000 − Rp12,000 = Rp8,000. Each promo order gives up Rp4,000.
If this item usually gets 10 orders a day, the discount takes away 10 × Rp4,000 = Rp40,000. You need 5 extra orders (5 × Rp8,000 = Rp40,000) just to get back to where you were: without the promo 10 × Rp12,000 = Rp120,000, with it 15 × Rp8,000 = Rp120,000.
This example takes the commission from the promo price. Check GrabMerchant's terms to see whether commission is based on the price before or after the discount, and who pays for the discount. If the suggestion is a paid ad, add its cost.
Two more limits from the Consumer Protection Law:
- Article 11(f) bans raising prices before a sale. Don't raise your regular price ahead of a promo to make the discount look bigger.
- Article 12 bans offering a special price for a set time and quantity without meaning to honor it. Have ingredients ready for the quantity you advertise, and run the promo until the date you advertise.
In Kazeer, COGS per item can be calculated from the item's recipe. For delivery orders, add the cost of packaging to your calculation, such as boxes, bags, and spoons. See the guide to COGS per menu item and the guide to menu pricing. To compare results before and during a promo, follow the article on slow-hour promotions.
Replying to reviews with AI help
An AI draft reply saves time, but edit it before you send it:
- Read the whole review, then check the order: the time, the items, and the customer's notes.
- Delete promises you can't keep, such as a voucher you don't offer.
- Don't blame the customer or the driver before you know what happened.
- Mention something specific from the review, and leave out the customer's personal details.
A polite reply doesn't remove the cause. Take repeated complaints to the kitchen:
| Complaint | What to check in the kitchen |
|---|
| Small portion | The amounts in the recipe, then weigh a few portions |
| Food arrives cold | Cooking order, waiting time, and packaging |
| Missing items | A checklist before the bag is sealed |
| Taste has changed | The written recipe, and who cooked on that shift |
- Scan your latest menu, then check names, prices, options, categories, and items you no longer sell.
- Edit the descriptions of your best sellers first, and cut any claim you can't back up.
- Replace photos that no longer match the dish you serve today.
- Before accepting a promo, work out what's left per order using COGS with packaging and your store's commission.
- Read reviews every day, edit the replies, and write down complaints that keep coming back.