AI Assistant

MealStack's AI Assistant helps you build meal plans faster by generating culturally appropriate Indian meals based on your client's profile, targets, and dietary preferences. Every AI output is a draft — you review, edit, and approve before anything is applied.

How it works

The AI uses a two-phase approach:

1. Phase 1 — AI composes real meals using its culinary knowledge (e.g., "Roti + Dal + Sabzi + Curd")
2. Phase 2 — The system matches food names to your food database (IFCT, USDA, or custom) and calculates actual nutrients

The AI never sees your food database directly. It suggests meals as a nutritionist would, then the system finds the closest matching foods.

Preview workflow

Every AI generation follows a preview → review → accept flow:

AI sidebar panel

The AI tab in the builder sidebar (✨ icon) provides plan-level AI actions:

Actions are contextual — they appear based on the current plan state and nutrient gaps.

Custom instructions

The input field at the bottom of the sidebar lets you type free-form instructions:

"Include South Indian breakfast options, avoid raw salads, prefer home-cooked meals"

The AI incorporates these instructions when generating meals.

Generating a full day

When a day has no items, a centered CTA appears:

Fill this day with AI Generate meals for Monday based on Navin's targets and preferences

Clicking this generates a preview. You'll see the proposed meals before anything is saved.

Filling a single meal

For individual meal slots, use the "Fill with AI" button below "Add food or recipe" (visible when the meal is empty), or find it in the meal's ⋯ dropdown menu.

AI food suggestions

When you open the food search panel and there's a significant nutrient gap (>30% below target for any macro), AI suggestions appear automatically at the top:

• Shows 3 suggested foods with portions and calories
• Each suggestion explains why it was chosen (e.g., "High protein, fills 40% of remaining gap")
• Click + to add directly to the meal
• Suggestions collapse when you start typing a search query

AI swap

Hover over any food item in a meal to see the ✨ swap icon. Click it to get 3 AI-suggested alternatives:

• Alternatives are in the same food category (beverage → beverage, protein → protein)
• Each shows calories, protein, and a brief reason
• Click "Swap" to replace the item in-place

Unmatched food resolution

When AI generates a day's meals, some food names may not match anything in the database. MealStack handles this automatically:

Auto-created AI foods — For most unmatched items, MealStack auto-creates a custom food with AI-estimated nutrients and includes it in the preview. These appear with a blue "AI Food" badge, distinct from regular database-matched items (violet dot). The auto-created food is saved to your practice's custom food database, marked as unverified.

Manual fallback — In the rare case auto-creation fails (e.g., network error), the item appears in an "unmatched" section with three options:

• Swap — search for a similar food in the database
• Create — open the Quick Food Creator pre-filled with the AI food name
• Skip — remove the item from the preview (click ✕)

Visual indicators in the preview

The AI day preview uses three distinct colors to show match quality:

AI nutrient estimation

When creating a custom food (from the food database page, the quick creator, or the full form), click Estimate with AI to have AI estimate nutritional values from just the food name.

AI returns:

• 16 commonly measured nutrients — energy, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, sugars, calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, zinc, vitamin A, folate (B9), vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin D
• Suggested portion sizes (e.g., "1 katori — 150g", "1 piece — 50g")
• Dietary type classification (veg/non-veg/egg/vegan)
• Confidence level — High (well-known foods), Medium (regional/homemade), Low (unusual items)
• Source note — what reference the estimate is based on (e.g., "Based on IFCT 2017 values for grilled chicken")

In the quick creator, the 5 key macros are shown in the form while the remaining 11 nutrients (minerals + vitamins) are saved automatically behind the scenes. In the full custom food form, all 16 nutrients populate the grid directly.

This is free (0 credits) and works in both the quick creator and the full custom food form. A violet disclaimer banner shows the confidence level and source note so you can judge the estimate quality before saving.

AI in PDF exports

When a meal plan contains AI-generated items, MealStack automatically adds a disclaimer to the PDF export: "Some items in this plan were generated with AI assistance. Nutritional values are estimates and may vary." This is appended to your existing disclaimer text (if any) and ensures transparency with clients. You can disable this in Settings → AI Assistant using the "AI disclaimer in PDF exports" toggle.

Credit cost indicators

Every AI action button shows its credit cost inline — a small ⚡ icon with the number of credits, or "Free" in green for zero-cost actions. This gives you full transparency before clicking.

Usage and limits

AI usage is tracked per organization using a weighted credit system that resets with your billing cycle.

Credit costs per action

Monthly allowance by plan

View your usage in the AI sidebar header or in Settings → AI.

Bonus credit packs

If you exceed your monthly allowance, you can purchase additional credit packs from Settings → AI. Bonus credits are valid for 12 months and are used automatically when your plan allowance runs out.

Privacy and safety

• No PII sent to AI — client names, emails, and phone numbers are never included in AI prompts
• Zero data retention — AI providers process data with no storage
• Dietary safety — every AI suggestion is checked against the client's allergies, intolerances, and dietary preference before being shown
• Org-level consent — AI must be enabled at the organization level (DPDP compliance)