- AI, generative AI (GenAI), augmented reality (AR) and immersive commerce platforms are areas of investment for Walmart
- The company has introduced a phone-based access NFC system to unlock secured products with digital credentials
Before the holiday shopping began, America’s biggest retailer unveiled how they will use artificial intelligence (AI) to connect with their customers.
Walmart revealed proprietary AI, generative AI (GenAI), augmented reality (AR) and immersive commerce platforms to create hyper-personalized, convenient and engaging shopping experiences across Walmart stores, Sam’s Clubs, apps and other virtual environments, according to company officials.
Suresh Kumar, global chief technology officer and chief development officer, Walmart Inc. stated that a standard search bar is no longer the fastest path to purchase.
“We must use technology to adapt to customers’ individual preferences and needs,” said Kumar.
GenAI Products
The Arkansas-based company has developed a system of proprietary GenAI products, the latest being Wallaby that features a series of retail-specific large language models (LLM) be used to create customer-facing experiences. Wallaby is trained with decades of Walmart data, enabling the company to combine it with other LLMs to create responses that are highly contextual and tailored to the Walmart environment.
Additionally, Walmart has a more personalized version of its AI-powered chatbot. The Customer Support Assistant recognizes who the customer is right from the start and goes beyond just understanding the customer’s intent to taking actions, like finding orders and managing returns, according to company officials.
In testing, customers reported an overall smoother experience that helped them handle their issues quickly and on their own. The company is actively building dozens of additional GenAI tools for customers, members, associates and partners that leverage its GenAI platforms, including enhanced care assistants for Sam’s Club and Walmart International.
“Our customers guide us, and with these platforms, we’re ready for whatever they need,” said Kumar
Personalized Shopping
With customers craving more personalized shopping experiences, Walmart has developed a Content Decision 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.
Being used within select areas of Walmart.com already, the retailer is able to create a unique homepage for each shopper making the online shopping experience as personalized as stepping into a store designed exclusively for each customer. The U.S. experience is expected to launch by the end of next year, and the company plans to use the platform’s underlying technology in Walmart International’s Canada and Mexico markets for personalized item recommendations.
Kumar noted “at the heart of our platform strategy is developing common global core capabilities that are built once and deployed across Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club and Walmart International.”
AR Shopping Offerings
As the retail shopping experience moves beyond brick-and-mortar and point-and-click Walmart has developed an AR platform called Retina aimed at the next generation of shoppers. Retina 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 new virtual social environments and unlock new revenue streams.
The first major retailer to pilot commerce on Roblox and launch Walmart Realm, an immersive commerce destination, the company is using its immersive commerce APIs to enter alpha testing with Unity and ZEPETO 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 powers 10 AR experiences across Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club that have seen a 10x increase in customer/member adoption, reduced rates of return and improved conversion rates.
Global Expansion
Looking ahead, Walmart plans to bring View in Your Home to Canada, Mexico and Chile via Retina and create more interactive experiences, like “hotspots,” an extension that enables customers/members to easily access production information while they are viewing an item in 3D. Company officials are actively working on headset-based experiences to enable customers/members to visualize 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 to the solution,” said Kumar.
NFC Expansion
For in-store innovations, Walmart has introduced a phone-based access control system using near-field communication (NFC) through the Me@Walmart app, allowing store associates to unlock secured products with digital credentials. The system, managed by InVue Live Access software, replaces traditional keys with NFC-enabled locks that authenticate associates via their work phones.
This is being offered due to the rise of retail theft. Walmart’s new system aims to streamline access to locked products, though early reports indicate mixed success; while some stores have improved customer service times, others have faced technical issues, with associates needing to restart the app at times to detect locks. The company plans to continue refining the NFC-based system based on feedback and technical performance.
Taking the new offerings as a whole, “this enables us to move with speed as we bring consistent experiences to all our customers and members,” said Kumar.
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