Walmart wants to further amp its business with emerging technology.
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On its most recent earnings call, Doug McMillon, Walmart’s CEO, said the company has used artificial intelligence in a way that allows it to amp outcomes for consumers, sellers and internal employees.
The company has been experimenting with AI for y e a r s , putting it ahead of many major industry brands and retailers. But the advent of generative AI several years ago has made the technology ultra buzzy throughout the industry. Walmart’s recent earnings call was no exception when it came to hype for generative AI, particularly as it continues to compete with Amazon—both for technological advancements and for market share.
Product attribution has become one of the most widely discussed—and implemented—use cases for AI as retailers and brands consider how it could impact their businesses. Some companies, like Lily AI , have popped up to aid companies in attributing their products based on natural language queries consumers would use. So, for instance, rather than searching for “blue silk dress,” a consumer might search for “formal wedding guest dress.”
McMillon said Walmart has used the technology to help it with clarity in its catalog, which has millions of SKUs in it at any given time.
“We’ve used generative AI to improve our product catalogue. The quality of the data in our catalogue affects nearly everything we do, from helping customers find and buy what they’re looking for, to how we sort inventory in the network, to delivering orders,” he said.
Further information and attribution about products can help them appear in the results for a wider variety of applicable consumer queries. In sorting through the company’s data to make that a reality, McMillon said Walmart found immense benefit from using AI.
“We’ve used multiple large language models to accurately create or improve over 850 million pieces of data in the catalog. Without the use of generative AI, this work would have required nearly 100 times the current head count to complete in the same amount of time. And for associates picking online orders, showing them high-quality images of product packaging helps them quickly find what they’re looking for.”
Already, AI has started to influence the consumer journey at Walmart, particularly where e-commerce is concerned, McMillon said. In January, the company announced it would be going public with its AI-powered search tool, which enables consumers to use conversational language in the search bar or to ask questions in the search bar. Examples include “What should I wear to a fall wedding?” and “What do I need for a Super Bowl party at my apartment?”
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In June, the company announced it would build out a generative AI-powered shopping assistant, which could have in-depth conversations with consumers about a variety of products. McMillon said on last week’s call that the capabilities of that technology will only continue to be refined.
Already, the company announced that it uses generative AI for review summarization and product comparisons, which McMillon did not mention on the call, but Walmart executives touted on social media in May.
“Customers and members are already enjoying AI-powered search on our app and site, and now they’ll have even more help with a new shopping assistant that provides advice and ideas, answering questions like, ‘Which TV is best for watching sports?’ Looking ahead, the assistant will be able to respond with more specific follow-up questions, like, ‘How’s the lighting in the room where you’ll place the TV?’”
Though some of Walmart’s focus with AI technology up until this point has been targeted at the end consumer, the company’s business model is unique in that it has another customer: its marketplace sellers. McMillon said the retail giant continues to evaluate how it can use generative AI to help answer questions for sellers.
“As we work to do all we can to help our sellers grow their businesses, we’re testing a new experience to select U.S.-based sellers that allows them to ask us anything. We want our sellers focused on selling, so the more we can make it a seamless experience, the better. The new assistant will quickly summarize and provide the seller with succinct answers without them having to sort through long articles or other materials,” he said.
McMillon closed out his remarks on the earnings call by pontificating on how the company plans to move forward with technology as it iterates rapidly. It comes as no surprise that the company, which has significantly improved its technology prowess in past years, has plans to continue moving in that direction.
In addition to its generative AI experiments, Walmart uses legacy AI systems to build its proprietary route optimization software, to handle autonomous forklifts in its distribution centers and more.
“The use cases for this technology are wide ranging and affect nearly all parts of our business, and we’ll continue to experiment and deploy AI and generative AI applications globally,” he said. “Today’s Walmart is different. We are people-led and tech-powered. We put ourselves in a position where we can continue to grow because we’re serving people however they want to be served. We can grow profit faster than sales while investing in our associates and lowering prices for customers and members, and we can grow ROI as we make the right capital investments and grow profitability.”
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