Walmart has unveiled four AI agents to ease the workloads of shoppers, employees, and suppliers. The tools, revealed at the company’s Retail Rewired event, include Marty for suppliers, Sparky for customers, an Associate Agent for staff, and a Developer Agent.
The retailer is leaning on AI as inflation, tariffs, and policy pressures weigh on consumer spending. Its agents cover payroll, time-off requests, merchandising, and personalised shopping recommendations.
Sparky is set to eventually handle automatic reordering of staples, aiming to simplify everyday restocking for households.
Walmart is also investing in ‘digital twins,’ virtual replicas of stores that allow early detection of operational issues. The company says this technology cut emergency alerts by 30% last year and reduced refrigeration maintenance costs by nearly a fifth.
Machine learning is further being applied to improve delivery-time predictions, helping to boost efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Rival retailers are making similar moves. Amazon reported a surge in generative AI use during its Prime Day sales, while Google Cloud AI has partnered with Lush to cut training costs.
Analysts suggest such tools could reshape the retail experience as companies search for ways to hold margins in a tighter economy.
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China has pledged to rein in excessive competition in AI, signalling Beijing’s desire to avoid wasteful investment while keeping the technology central to its economic strategy.
The National Development and Reform Commission stated that provinces should develop AI in a coordinated manner, leveraging local strengths to prevent duplication and overlap. Officials in China emphasised the importance of orderly flows of talent, capital, and resources.
The move follows President Xi Jinping’s warnings about unchecked local investment. Authorities aim to prevent overcapacity problems, such as those seen in electric vehicles, which have fueled deflationary pressures in other industries.
While global investment in data centres has surged, Beijing is adopting a calibrated approach. The state also vowed stronger national planning and support for private firms, aiming to nurture new domestic leaders in AI.
At the same time, policymakers are pushing to attract private capital into traditional sectors, while considering more central spending on social projects to ease local government debt burdens and stimulate long-term consumption.
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OpenAI is preparing to build a significant new data centre in India as part of its Stargate AI infrastructure initiative. The move will expand the company’s presence in Asia and strengthen its operations in its second-largest market by user base.
OpenAI has already registered as a legal entity in India and begun assembling a local team.
The company plans to open its first office in New Delhi later this year. Details regarding the exact location and timeline of the proposed data centre remain unclear, though CEO Sam Altman may provide further information during his upcoming visit to India.
The project represents a strategic step to support the company’s growing regional AI ambitions.
OpenAI’s Stargate initiative, announced by US President Donald Trump in January, involves private sector investment of up to $500 billion for AI infrastructure, backed by SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle.
The initiative seeks to develop large-scale AI capabilities across major markets worldwide, with the India data centre potentially playing a key role in the efforts.
The expansion highlights OpenAI’s focus on scaling its AI infrastructure while meeting regional demand. The company intends to strengthen operational efficiency, improve service reliability, and support its long-term growth in Asia by establishing local offices and a significant data centre.
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SK Telecom has expanded its partnership with Schneider Electric to develop an AI Data Centre (AIDC) in Ulsan.
Under the deal, Schneider Electric will supply mechanical, electrical and plumbing equipment, such as switchgear, transformers, automated control systems and Uninterruptible Power Supply units.
The agreement builds on a partnership announced at Mobile World Congress 2025 and includes using Schneider’s Electrical Transient Analyser Program within SK Telecom’s data centre management system.
It will allow operations to be optimised through a digital twin model instead of relying only on traditional monitoring tools.
Both companies have also agreed on prefabricated solutions to shorten construction times, reference designs for new facilities, and joint efforts to grow the Energy-as-a-Service business.
A Memorandum of Understanding extends the partnership to other SK Group affiliates, combining battery technologies with Uninterruptible Power Supply and Energy Storage Systems.
Executives said the collaboration would help set new standards for AI data centres and create synergies across the SK Group. It is also expected to support SK Telecom’s broader AI strategy while contributing to sustainable and efficient infrastructure development.
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Research and development spending will see a record 19.3 percent jump to 35.3 trillion won, with AI receiving the steepest increase. Planned AI expenditure of 10.1 trillion won marks a threefold rise over 2025 and includes procuring 15,000 high-performance GPUs.
Industrial policy funding will grow by 14.7 percent, while social welfare and defence allocations also rise by over 8 percent. The fiscal deficit is expected to widen to 4.0 percent of GDP, with the public debt ratio forecast to reach 51.6 percent.
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Estonia’s government-backed AI teaching tool, developed under the €1 million TI-Leap programme, faces hurdles before reaching schools. Legal restrictions and waning student interest have delayed its planned September rollout.
Officials in Estonia stress that regulations to protect minors’ data remain incomplete. To ensure compliance, the Ministry of Education is drafting changes to the Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act.
Yet, engagement may prove to be the bigger challenge. Developers note students already use mainstream AI for homework, while the state model is designed to guide reasoning rather than supply direct answers.
Educators say success will depend on usefulness. The AI will be piloted in 10th and 11th grades, alongside teacher training, as studies have shown that more than 60% of students already rely on AI tools.
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The company is engaging thousands of visitors, including farmers and policymakers, by spotlighting digital inclusive finance, insurance and smart infrastructure innovations.
The display features EcoCash mobile payments, Moovah Insurance for agricultural and business risks, and digital entertainment platforms. A standout addition is Econet’s smart water metres, which provide real-time monitoring to help farmers and utilities manage water use, minimise waste and support sustainable development in agriculture.
Econet emphasises that these solutions reinforce its vision of empowering communities through accessible technology. Smart infrastructure and financial tools are presented as vital enablers for productivity, resilience and economic inclusion in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector.
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Led by CEO Nick Lahoika, the company has scaled rapidly, achieving upwards of 4 million downloads and serving approximately 160,000 active users.
Vocal Image positions itself as an affordable, mobile-first alternative to traditional one-on-one voice training, rooted in Lahoika’s own journey overcoming speaking anxiety.
The app’s design enables users to practice at home with privacy and convenience, offering daily, bite-sized lessons informed by AI that assess strengths, suggest improvements and nurture confidence with no need for human instructors.
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China has set its most ambitious AI adoption targets yet, aiming to embed the technology across industries, governance, and daily life within the next decade.
According to a new State Council directive, AI use should reach 70% of the population by 2027 and 90% by 2030, with a complete shift to what it calls an ‘intelligent society’ by 2035.
The plan would mean nearly one billion Chinese citizens regularly using AI-powered services or devices within two years, a timeline compared to the rapid rise of smartphones.
Although officials acknowledge risks such as opaque models, hallucinations and algorithmic discrimination, the policy calls for frameworks to govern ‘natural persons, digital persons, and intelligent robots’.
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China has begun construction on its first facility dedicated to the production of photonic quantum computers in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The project marks a step toward the development of large-scale quantum computing capabilities in the country.
The factory, led by Beijing-based quantum computing company QBoson, is expected to manufacture several dozen photonic quantum computers each year once operations begin.
QBoson’s founder, Wen Kai, explained that photonic quantum computing uses the quantum properties of light and is viewed as a promising path in the field.
Compared with other approaches, it does not require extremely low temperatures to function and offers advantages such as stable operation at room temperature, a higher number of qubits, and longer coherence times.
The upcoming facility will be divided into three core areas: module development, full-system production, and quality testing. Construction is already underway, and equipment installation is scheduled to begin by the end of October.
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