Walmart Embraces Agentic AI in New Era of Retail

Walmart is getting ready for the agentic artificial intelligence revolution in retail.

The world’s largest retailer disclosed in a Thursday (May 29) company blog post how it is preparing for an era where robot shoppers will buy products and services from robot sellers, accessing websites optimized for them with the goal of delivering fast, hyper-personalized experiences to human shoppers.

“While the technology is still in its early days, Walmart is moving rapidly and intentionally to integrate agentic capabilities into existing workflows across the business, creating powerful new capabilities as we build the future of retail,” Walmart U.S. Chief Technology Officer Hari Vasudev wrote in the post.

First, Walmart identifies core agentic AI capabilities that would work best for the retailer, are cohesive and can scale globally, per the post. Next, it uses a “surgical” approach to agentic AI. That means its agents will be experts at specific tasks, unlike the more generic solutions from other providers. Finally, Walmart agents’ work outputs will be stitched together to solve complex workflows.

As an example, Walmart taps its retail-expert large language model to build agents within its generative AI shopping assistant, which appears as a smiley face chatbot. These agents can do specific tasks such as deep personalization, item comparison and shopping journey completion, among others, the post said.

The model is trained on the retailer’s data and can be combined with other models to contextually address the customer’s needs, according to the post.

Walmart’s existing generative AI-powered tools are on their way to becoming fully autonomous agents. These include the following:

• Tools for merchants that help them automate tasks
• Trend-to-Product, an AI tool that spots trends and helps the retailer create relevant products as much as 18 weeks faster
• Customer Support Assistant, which helps human representatives route, resolve and automate mundane tasks
• GenAI shopping assistant, which enables multiple agents to work together behind the scenes and is developing voice and camera capabilities

Walmart is also exploring using AI agents across the company, from doing in-store tasks to merchandising planning at the home office and beyond.

Agentic AI is reshaping the eCommerce funnel, Scott Hendrickson and Kumar Senthil, founders of agentic AI merchant network Firmly, told PYMNTS this month. The evolution from search to suggestion to settlement is the next logical step in eCommerce.

Social media feeds already entice users with one-click purchases of impulse items, they said. Now, agentic AI takes it further by surfacing products at the point of shopper research, wherever they may conduct it, verifying availability and finalizing the order without leaving the chatbot.

In recent months, tech companies have been rolling out AI agent solutions in retail. Providers include Amazon, ServiceNow, Google Cloud, Salesforce and Zebra Technologies. The goal is to create better customer experiences, improve product search, boost inventory management and provide enhanced product recommendations, among other automated tasks.

However, the “biggest question is whether retailers are willing to invest in technology that is relatively new, and, in many ways, has yet to demonstrate ROI,” Keith Kirkpatrick, research director of enterprise applications at The Futurum Group, told PYMNTS in January.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Getting to Know You: How AI Is Shaping the Future of Shopping” found that retailers are hoping to tap into the increasing consumer interest in AI-powered shopping agents. The report revealed that most consumers want some kind of AI shopping journey.

Walmart is preparing for what it sees as an inevitable shift toward personal shopping agents — AI assistants that will shop on behalf of consumers. This emerging technology promises to reshape the retail landscape, requiring new infrastructure and marketing approaches that the company is already developing.

“The rise of personal shopping agents will require a collaborative approach between retailers, providers and customers,” Walmart’s blog post said.

Two key developments are needed:

• Customers must learn to provide detailed feedback to help their agents understand individual needs.
• Retailers must build communication bridges between personal shopping agents and internal systems to validate and fulfill customer orders.

Shoppers are already using Walmart’s shopping assistant to find products, and the next step is to let an agent do the research, make decisions and place the order, according to the post. This autonomous task would be ideal for repeat purchases of everyday necessities.

However, the way an agent shops is different from humans. Visually appealing images that tug at a shopper’s heartstrings won’t move an AI agent that is making a purchase decision. Therefore, “we need to develop new pathways for agent discovery,” the post said.

These new ways include advertising strategies tailored for agents, development of agent-specific SEO and others, the post said without providing more details. These strategies won’t replace traditional advertising methods but complement them — much like social media ads did not replace traditional advertising.

Walmart is aware of the risk of hallucinations, or AI models making things up. So, it is adding a layer of governance, checks and balances, as well as evaluating which parts of agentic AI need human oversight and approval, according to the post.

Despite the hefty work ahead, the retailer remains optimistic.

“Imagine complex personal shoppers that understand nuanced preferences, dynamic store environments that adapt in real time based on customer needs, and self-optimizing logistics networks that ensure products are always in the right place at the right time,” the post said. “This is why we’re so invested in building the right foundation today, to not only meet but anticipate the needs of tomorrow.”

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Read more:

• Walmart Launches Digital Tools to Help Customers Find Benefits-Eligible Products
• Walmart Prepares for a Future Where AI Shops for Consumers
• How Amazon and Walmart Are Rewiring Retail’s Future With Robotics

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