Walmart AI to improve shopping experience

  • October 15, 2024
  • Steve Rogerson

US retail giant Walmart has unveiled plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the shopping experience for its customers.

The company has revealed proprietary AI, generative AI (genAI), augmented reality (AR) and immersive commerce platforms it is leveraging to create personalised, convenient and engaging shopping experiences across Walmart stores, Sam’s Clubs, apps and other virtual environments.

“A standard search bar is no longer the fastest path to purchase; rather we must use technology to adapt to customers’ individual preferences and needs,” said Suresh Kumar, chief technology officer at Walmart. “At the heart of our platform strategy is developing common global core capabilities that are built once and deployed across Walmart and Sam’s Club. As a global company with multiple business segments, this enables us to move with speed as we bring consistent experiences to all our customers and members.”

Walmart has developed proprietary platforms to power genAI technology, with the latest being Wallaby – a series of retail-specific large language models (LLMs) that will primarily be used to create customer-facing experiences. Wallaby is trained with decades of Walmart data, enabling the retailer to combine it with other LLMs to create responses that are contextual and tailored to the Walmart environment.

Leveraging a combination of genAI platforms, Walmart has also created a more personalised version of its AI-powered customer support assistant. Now, the assistant recognises who the customer is right from the start and goes beyond just understanding the customer’s intent to taking actions, such as finding orders and managing returns. In testing, shoppers reported an overall smoother experience that helped them handle their issues quickly and on their own. The company is building dozens of additional genAI tools for customers, members, staff and partners that leverage its genAI platforms, including enhanced care assistants for Sam’s Club and Walmart International.

Walmart has developed a content decision platform, aligned with its digital Trust commitments and responsible AI pledge (corporate.walmart.com/news/2023/10/17/our-responsible-ai-pledge-setting-the-bar-for-ethical-ai), that serves as a foundational tool to create shopping experiences tailored to the individual customer. The platform leverages AI-based technology to understand the customer and a genAI-powered tool that can predict the type of content they’d like to see on the site. It’s already being used within select areas of Walmart.com.

With this technology, Walmart will create a homepage for each shopper making the online shopping experience as personalised as stepping into a store designed exclusively for each customer. The US experience is expected to launch by the end of next year, and the company plans to use the platform’s underlying technology in Canada and Mexico for personalised item recommendations.

Retail today goes beyond just online and in-store shopping, or even a combination of both. It’s about meeting customers in new places, particularly younger generations for whom shopping is often a byproduct of other activities, such as gaming. To do this, Walmart has developed an AR platform called Retina, which leverages AI, genAI and automation to create tens of thousands of 3D assets, along with immersive commerce APIs. These technologies enable the company to bring the Walmart shopping experience into virtual social environments, unlock revenue streams and be at the forefront of adaptive retail.

Following its success in piloting real-world commerce on Roblox and launching Walmart Realm, an immersive commerce destination, Walmart is using immersive commerce APIs to enter alpha testing with Unity (unity.com). The company will also use the APIs to launch an experience with Zepeto (web.zepeto.me) later this year. Within the immersive avatar-based social platform, customers will be able to buy items from Walmart’s No Boundaries brand for their virtual avatars and the matching real-world item for themselves.

Retina also powers ten AR experiences across Walmart in the USA and Sam’s Club that have seen a tenfold increase in customer and member adoption, reduced rates of return and improved conversion rates. Looking ahead, Walmart plans to bring View in Your Home to Canada, Mexico and Chile via Retina and create more interactive experiences, such as hotspots, an extension that helps customers and members easily access production information while they are viewing an item in 3D. The company is actively working on headset-based experiences to enable customers and members to visualise furniture in an inspirational setting.

“Being people-led means we start with the human need and, often, a combination of technologies like AI, genAI, AR and immersive commerce, is key,” said Kumar. “Our customers guide us and, with these platforms, we’re ready for whatever they need.”

Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting corporate.walmart.com.