Walmart Launches Proprietary AI Platforms Designed for Personalized Shopping

Walmart is diving into the world of artificial intelligence by launching a series of AI improvements, including a new customer support chatbot, a Roblox activation, and personalized Walmart.com homepages. Calling it a "strategy to accelerate adaptive retail," Walmart said in a press release its propriety AI, generative AI, augmented reality (AR) and immersive commerce platforms are designed to provide shoppers with more personalized experiences.

Its new generative AI platform, called Wallaby, is integrated into Walmart's new chatbot that is designed to provide responses that are highly contextual and tailored to the Walmart environment. A new tool called the Content Decision Platform predicts the type of content individual customers are most likely to engage with and uses that information to create a unique homepage for each shopper. Adweek reported that Walmart plans to roll that out fully in the U.S. by the end of 2025.

Walmart is also experimenting with an AR tool called Retina, which creates tens of thousands of 3D images of products.

Total Retail's Take: Walmart's e-commerce sales have taken off and become one of its main growth engines, according to Retail Brew, even growing at a faster rate than Amazon.com, so rollout of the AI platforms is timely. Analysts have said that Walmart is ahead of the pack when it comes to generative AI, and it's become clear that AI is changing the online shopping journey. Walmart is winning over new customers, including higher income shoppers and younger demographics, through its enhanced omnichannel operations, digital innovations and, of course, its competitive pricing. The retailer recognizes the impact that AI can have on its business, including customer experience, and is wisely embracing the technology through practical applications.