Walmart rolls out AI agents to transform shopping and operations
Inflation and tariffs are pushing retailers to adopt AI, with Walmart betting on digital twins and machine learning to keep costs under control.
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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