Walmart Reveals How Gen AI and Augmented Reality Are Changing Shopping

Walmart is using new types of artificial intelligence, generative AI, and immersive commerce in its stores.

The new technology is part of Walmart’s broader “adaptive retail” strategy aimed at incorporating technology into the customer experience. The retail giant said the goal is to create “hyper-personalized, convenient, and engaging shopping experiences” across Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, ecommerce websites, applications, and digital environments like Roblox.

“A standard search bar is no longer the fastest path to purchase,” Walmart chief technology officer and chief development officer Suresh Kumar said in a statement. “Being people-led means we start with the human need, and often, a combination of technologies like AI, gen AI, augmented reality, and immersive commerce is key to the solution. Our customers guide us, and with these platforms, we’re ready for whatever they need.”

New use cases for gen AI

Walmart’s latest gen AI platform is called Wallaby. Wallaby is trained on Walmart’s data to create large language models (or LLMs) that can be used to create contextual experiences specific to the Walmart environment.

Walmart also updated its customer support assistant with gen AI features. The customer support assistant recognizes a shopper based on their previous interactions with Walmart’s ecommerce site or a store and is aimed at simplifying the customer service process.

For example, previously, if a shopper queried the customer support assistant about returning a sweatshirt that was too small, they would have to locate their order and manually fill out the return form. Now, the assistant can find the order information based on information provided by the shopper. Shoppers then tap “confirm” to process the return, said a Walmart spokesperson.

In another example, the gen AI-powered customer service assistant only shares the portion of Walmart’s lengthy return policy that is relevant to a shopper’s returned items.

Walmart said it is actively building other gen AI tools to help with customer care.

Better content with AI

Another way Walmart is leveraging AI technology is through a tool called the Content Decision Platform that claims to predict the type of content individual customers are most likely to engage with. Walmart said that this tool is already being used within Walmart.com.

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