AI Usage at a Glance
Timeline
Jun 22, 2019
Data AnalysisPractice documented: Walmart uses AI-powered cameras at self-checkout registers to automatically detect when an item is placed in a bag without being scanned. A separate AI system monitors third-party seller accounts to flag counterfeit products and policy violations. A third system uses behavioral analysis to catch financial crimes like fraudulent returns and payment fraud. The checkout camera program has been operating in over 1,000 stores since at least 2019.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jul 19, 2019
Data AnalysisNew evidence: Walmart adds AI-powered cameras to more than 1,000 stores to reduce checkout theft
Evidence AddedView practice →Jul 29, 2020
Customer SvcPractice documented: Ask Sam is a voice assistant for Walmart store employees. Workers can speak or type questions into the Me@Walmart employee app and immediately get answers — like where a product is on the shelf, what its price is, what their schedule looks like, or what messages managers have sent. It was expanded to all 5,000-plus U.S. Walmart stores in July 2020, and employees ask it over 3 million questions per week.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Nov 8, 2021
OtherPractice documented: Walmart delivers orders using drones and self-driving trucks that operate without a human driver. Drone delivery is available near 270-plus Walmart stores and is on track to reach 40 million Americans. In 2021, Walmart and an autonomous trucking company called Gatik completed the world's first fully driverless commercial delivery route, with no safety driver in the cab.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Apr 7, 2022
Customer SvcPractice documented: Walmart uses a generative AI-powered assistant to handle customer support interactions over chat and phone. The assistant can identify who the customer is, understand what they need, and take actions — like finding an order, processing a return, or issuing a refund — without involving a human agent. It is available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile, and India.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Mar 3, 2023
Customer SvcNew evidence: Three Ways We’re Using Conversational AI at Walmart
Evidence AddedView practice →Aug 30, 2023
ProductivityPractice documented: Walmart gave all of its roughly 50,000 corporate (non-store) employees in the U.S. access to a generative AI assistant called My Assistant in August 2023. Employees use it to draft documents, summarize long files, brainstorm ideas, look up benefits information, and onboard to new roles. Walmart was among the first major retailers to deploy a company-wide generative AI tool for office workers.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Oct 25, 2023
Data AnalysisPractice documented: Walmart uses a proprietary AI system to predict how much of each product customers will buy, at which stores, and when. A connected system called Self-Healing Inventory automatically detects stock problems across the supply chain and reroutes products before shelves run empty — without waiting for a person to notice the issue. Walmart says Self-Healing Inventory has saved the company more than $55 million.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 9, 2024
RecommendationPractice documented: Walmart replaced its traditional keyword search engine with an AI-powered search that understands the goal behind a query, not just the words. A shopper can type "I'm hosting a Super Bowl party" and receive a curated list of snacks, decorations, and supplies — rather than getting a literal list of items containing the phrase. This launched in January 2024 across the Walmart website and mobile app.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 9, 2024
ProductivityNew evidence: Walmart unveils new generative AI-powered capabilities for shoppers and associates
Evidence AddedView practice →Jan 10, 2024
RecommendationNew evidence: Walmart's new bet: Biggest U.S. retailer leans into AI-powered shopping
Evidence AddedView practice →Mar 14, 2024
OtherPractice documented: Walmart uses AI software to plan the most efficient routes for its delivery trucks, figure out how to pack trailers to minimize wasted space, and cut unnecessary miles from its logistics network. Walmart says this eliminated 30 million unnecessary miles and avoided 94 million pounds of CO₂ emissions. The company now sells this same routing technology to other businesses as a commercial software product.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Aug 20, 2024
Creative GenPractice documented: Walmart uses generative AI to write and improve product descriptions and data for items sold on its website. The company used AI models to create or improve over 850 million pieces of product information — work that Walmart's CEO said would have required nearly 100 times as many employees to complete manually in the same time. Walmart also gives third-party sellers tools to generate their own listings using AI.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Aug 22, 2024
OtherPractice documented: Walmart is piloting an AI tool that simulates a job interview for candidates applying to work at the company. It walks applicants through up to 10 practice questions, scores each response on a scale of 1 to 10, and gives instant feedback on how clearly and confidently the person answered. The pilot began in June 2025 with current Walmart employees and was planned to expand to all applicants.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Oct 9, 2024
Customer SvcNew evidence: Walmart Reveals Plan for Scaling Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Augmented Reality and Immersive Commerce Experiences
Evidence AddedView practice →Oct 9, 2024
RecommendationPractice documented: Walmart built an AI system — called the Content Decision Platform — that generates a different homepage for each shopper on walmart.com, based on their shopping history and what the AI predicts they'll want to see. Two people visiting the same URL at the same moment will see different products, layouts, and content. This rolled out in 2024 and was planned to be fully deployed for all U.S. shoppers by end of 2025.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Oct 10, 2024
RecommendationNew evidence: Walmart Unveils AI-Powered Personalization and Customer Care Solutions
Evidence AddedView practice →Oct 18, 2024
Data AnalysisPractice documented: Scintilla (formerly called Walmart Luminate) is an analytics platform Walmart offers to the brands and suppliers who sell on its shelves. It gives them access to data about how their products sell at Walmart stores and online, and uses AI to suggest what they should do next — like how to adjust pricing or fix a stock issue. Suppliers who subscribe to it grew their combined sales 15% faster than those who don't.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Oct 22, 2024
ProductivityPractice documented: Walmart's technology team built and deployed a set of AI-powered tools to help software engineers work faster. These include a coding assistant called Code Buddy, an internal question-answering assistant called DX AI Assistant, and a diagram-generation tool called ArchiText. Walmart says these tools saved its developers around 4 million hours in a single year.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 16, 2025
OtherPractice documented: Walmart is using a robotic system made by a company called Symbotic to automate its regional distribution centers. Fleets of autonomous robots receive products from suppliers, store them, retrieve them, and build sorted loads ready for stores — work that was previously done largely by human warehouse workers. More than 60% of U.S. Walmart stores now receive at least some of their stock from an automated distribution center.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 21, 2025
OtherNew evidence: Walmart invests in automation as it sells robotics arm
Evidence AddedView practice →Feb 20, 2025
ProductivityNew evidence: Walmart doubles down on AI with broader rollout of coding tools
Evidence AddedView practice →Mar 23, 2025
ModerationPractice documented: Walmart uses AI to review the quality of product listings posted by third-party sellers on its marketplace. The same AI that flags listings with problems — like misleading titles or policy violations — also suggests improvements to help sellers fix them. A third-party study found that AI-generated product reviews on Walmart grew sharply from 2019 to 2023 and then leveled off, which may indicate Walmart deployed detection tools, though Walmart has not confirmed this.
Practice DocumentedView practice →May 20, 2025
Creative GenNew evidence: How Walmart uses LLMs to manage its massive product catalogs
Evidence AddedView practice →Jun 5, 2025
OtherNew evidence: Walmart Pilots AI Interview Coach and Accelerates Associate to Technician Program To Fuel Careers
Evidence AddedView practice →Jun 5, 2025
OtherNew evidence: Walmart simulates interviews with AI; trains workers as technicians
Evidence AddedView practice →Jun 5, 2025
OtherNew evidence: Walmart Takes Flight With Drone Delivery Expansion to Five New Cities, Redefining Fast, Flexible Retail
Evidence AddedView practice →Jun 6, 2025
RecommendationPractice documented: Sparky is Walmart's AI-powered shopping assistant built into the Walmart mobile app. Shoppers can have a conversation with it — typing things like "Help me plan a flower-themed birthday party" — and it returns product suggestions, review summaries, and occasion-based recommendations. It launched in June 2025 and is available to U.S. app users. Walmart says customers who use Sparky spend about 35% more per order than those who don't.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jun 24, 2025
Customer SvcNew evidence: Walmart Unveils New AI-Powered Tools To Empower 1.5 Million Associates
Evidence AddedView practice →Jun 24, 2025
ProductivityPractice documented: Walmart rolled out an AI tool for store employees that analyzes what needs to be done during a shift and recommends the most important tasks in priority order. It cut the time team leads spend planning overnight shifts from 90 minutes down to 30 minutes. The tool launched in June 2025 and is being expanded beyond overnight shifts to other parts of the store day.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jun 26, 2025
ProductivityNew evidence: Walmart launches new suite of AI tools for workers
Evidence AddedView practice →Jul 17, 2025
Data AnalysisNew evidence: Walmart’s U.S. Supply Chain Playbook Goes Global — and It’s Reinventing Retail at Scale
Evidence AddedView practice →Jul 24, 2025
Data AnalysisNew evidence: Walmart touts AI for fraudulent marketplace seller detection
Evidence AddedView practice →Aug 26, 2025
Creative GenNew evidence: Walmart Unveils New Seller Capabilities and Tools, Growth Initiatives and Next-Level Omnichannel Opportunities at Marketplace Seller Summit
Evidence AddedView practice →Oct 7, 2025
Data AnalysisNew evidence: 4 ways Walmart is scaling AI to unify its supply chain
Evidence AddedView practice →Oct 19, 2025
ModerationNew evidence: AI Walmart Reviews Surged by 80.8% — Then Stalled from 2023 to 2024
Evidence AddedView practice →Oct 29, 2025
Data AnalysisNew evidence: Walmart Data Ventures Shapes the Next Era of Insight-Driven Retail Innovation
Evidence AddedView practice →Nov 20, 2025
OtherNew evidence: Walmart grows automation usage throughout supply chain
Evidence AddedView practice →Dec 8, 2025
OtherNew evidence: Inside the AI network orchestrating Walmart’s fastest holiday deliveries yet
Evidence AddedView practice →Dec 16, 2025
RecommendationNew evidence: Can Walmart’s AI bet close the gap with Amazon?
Evidence AddedView practice →Jan 6, 2026
Creative GenPractice documented: Walmart Connect offers advertisers an AI tool that automatically generates ad images and branded page layouts from a product listing in minutes. Walmart says the tool reduces the time it takes to produce advertising creative by about 80%. It was announced in January 2026 and is designed to help smaller brands that lack dedicated creative teams.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 6, 2026
RecommendationPractice documented: Walmart Connect is Walmart's advertising business, and it uses AI to decide which ads to show which shoppers, automatically optimize how much advertisers pay per click, and help brands build and manage their campaigns through a conversational assistant. The platform grew 53% year-over-year in advertising revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Jan 9, 2026
Creative GenNew evidence: Walmart's Marty agent joins new AI features for retail media network advertisers
Evidence AddedView practice →Jan 9, 2026
RecommendationNew evidence: Walmart Connect takes a play out of the Amazon playbook to make agentic AI the next battleground in retail media
Evidence AddedView practice →Jan 11, 2026
OtherNew evidence: Wing and Walmart expand drone delivery to 150 new stores coast to coast
Evidence AddedView practice →Mar 19, 2026
Data AnalysisPractice documented: Walmart secured two U.S. patents in early 2026 for machine learning systems designed to forecast demand and recommend markdown prices on its e-commerce platform. When the patents became public in March 2026, consumers and lawmakers in several states raised questions about dynamic pricing; Walmart stated both patents are unrelated to dynamic pricing and that it does not participate in surge pricing. Separately, Walmart is rolling out digital shelf labels across all 4,600 U.S. stores, with roughly 2,300 locations already equipped as of March 2026.
Practice DocumentedView practice →Mar 20, 2026
Data AnalysisNew evidence: Walmart Wins Patents for AI-Powered Price Changes
Evidence AddedView practice →Mar 20, 2026
Data AnalysisNew evidence: Walmart courts controversy with AI-driven pricing tools
Evidence AddedView practice →Dec 20, 2026
RecommendationNew evidence: Walmart's Marty agent joins new AI features for retail media network advertisers
Evidence AddedView practice →Recent activity
Walmart Connect is Walmart's advertising business, and it uses AI to decide which ads to show which shoppers, automatically optimize how much advertisers pay per click, and help brands build and manage their campaigns through a conversational assistant. The platform grew 53% year-over-year in advertising revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026.
Walmart Connect (formerly Walmart Media Group, rebranded in 2021) is one of the fastest-growing retail media networks in the U.S. At CES 2026 in January 2026, Walmart announced an AI advertising assistant called Marty — one of its four enterprise-wide "super agents" — that allows advertisers to build, optimize, and troubleshoot campaigns through a chat interface. Marty was in beta for Sponsored Search campaigns and can provide bidding, keyword, and billing recommendations. Walmart also began testing ads placed directly inside the Sparky shopping assistant in fall 2025. The December 2024 acquisition of Vizio for $2.2 billion extended Walmart Connect's reach to connected TV advertising.
Walmart is piloting an AI tool that simulates a job interview for candidates applying to work at the company. It walks applicants through up to 10 practice questions, scores each response on a scale of 1 to 10, and gives instant feedback on how clearly and confidently the person answered. The pilot began in June 2025 with current Walmart employees and was planned to expand to all applicants.
The AI Interview Coach was announced on June 5, 2025. The pilot began with internal associates before expanding to external applicants. Walmart separately offers AI-powered tools to help military veterans translate their service experience into language that maps to Walmart job roles. For its Central American operations (approximately 1,800 stores), Walmart partnered with Talkpush to automate hiring, achieving a 92% application completion rate and cutting the time to fill open positions in half. Walmart also provided a $250,000 grant to Case Western Reserve University to research how AI might reduce unconscious bias in hiring decisions.
Walmart delivers orders using drones and self-driving trucks that operate without a human driver. Drone delivery is available near 270-plus Walmart stores and is on track to reach 40 million Americans. In 2021, Walmart and an autonomous trucking company called Gatik completed the world's first fully driverless commercial delivery route, with no safety driver in the cab.
Walmart's drone delivery partnership is primarily with Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet (Google's parent company). In January 2026, Wing and Walmart announced an expansion adding 150 new store locations — the largest drone delivery expansion ever announced — bringing service to cities including Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Miami. Walmart has recorded more than 150,000 successful drone deliveries since 2021. Drone deliveries typically cover grocery staples, household essentials, over-the-counter medicines, and small electronics. Walmart also partnered with Zipline for drone delivery in select markets. For autonomous truck delivery, Walmart's collaboration with Gatik began in 2019 in Bentonville, Arkansas, and achieved fully driverless (no safety driver) commercial middle-mile deliveries in August 2021. Walmart previously sold its stake in drone delivery company DroneUp in January 2025.
All practices by category
Walmart is piloting an AI tool that simulates a job interview for candidates applying to work at the company. It walks applicants through up to 10 practice questions, scores each response on a scale of 1 to 10, and gives instant feedback on how clearly and confidently the person answered. The pilot began in June 2025 with current Walmart employees and was planned to expand to all applicants.
Walmart delivers orders using drones and self-driving trucks that operate without a human driver. Drone delivery is available near 270-plus Walmart stores and is on track to reach 40 million Americans. In 2021, Walmart and an autonomous trucking company called Gatik completed the world's first fully driverless commercial delivery route, with no safety driver in the cab.
Walmart uses AI software to plan the most efficient routes for its delivery trucks, figure out how to pack trailers to minimize wasted space, and cut unnecessary miles from its logistics network. Walmart says this eliminated 30 million unnecessary miles and avoided 94 million pounds of CO₂ emissions. The company now sells this same routing technology to other businesses as a commercial software product.
Walmart is using a robotic system made by a company called Symbotic to automate its regional distribution centers. Fleets of autonomous robots receive products from suppliers, store them, retrieve them, and build sorted loads ready for stores — work that was previously done largely by human warehouse workers. More than 60% of U.S. Walmart stores now receive at least some of their stock from an automated distribution center.
Walmart secured two U.S. patents in early 2026 for machine learning systems designed to forecast demand and recommend markdown prices on its e-commerce platform. When the patents became public in March 2026, consumers and lawmakers in several states raised questions about dynamic pricing; Walmart stated both patents are unrelated to dynamic pricing and that it does not participate in surge pricing. Separately, Walmart is rolling out digital shelf labels across all 4,600 U.S. stores, with roughly 2,300 locations already equipped as of March 2026.
Walmart uses AI-powered cameras at self-checkout registers to automatically detect when an item is placed in a bag without being scanned. A separate AI system monitors third-party seller accounts to flag counterfeit products and policy violations. A third system uses behavioral analysis to catch financial crimes like fraudulent returns and payment fraud. The checkout camera program has been operating in over 1,000 stores since at least 2019.
Scintilla (formerly called Walmart Luminate) is an analytics platform Walmart offers to the brands and suppliers who sell on its shelves. It gives them access to data about how their products sell at Walmart stores and online, and uses AI to suggest what they should do next — like how to adjust pricing or fix a stock issue. Suppliers who subscribe to it grew their combined sales 15% faster than those who don't.
Walmart uses a proprietary AI system to predict how much of each product customers will buy, at which stores, and when. A connected system called Self-Healing Inventory automatically detects stock problems across the supply chain and reroutes products before shelves run empty — without waiting for a person to notice the issue. Walmart says Self-Healing Inventory has saved the company more than $55 million.
Walmart Connect is Walmart's advertising business, and it uses AI to decide which ads to show which shoppers, automatically optimize how much advertisers pay per click, and help brands build and manage their campaigns through a conversational assistant. The platform grew 53% year-over-year in advertising revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026.
Walmart built an AI system — called the Content Decision Platform — that generates a different homepage for each shopper on walmart.com, based on their shopping history and what the AI predicts they'll want to see. Two people visiting the same URL at the same moment will see different products, layouts, and content. This rolled out in 2024 and was planned to be fully deployed for all U.S. shoppers by end of 2025.
Walmart replaced its traditional keyword search engine with an AI-powered search that understands the goal behind a query, not just the words. A shopper can type "I'm hosting a Super Bowl party" and receive a curated list of snacks, decorations, and supplies — rather than getting a literal list of items containing the phrase. This launched in January 2024 across the Walmart website and mobile app.
Sparky is Walmart's AI-powered shopping assistant built into the Walmart mobile app. Shoppers can have a conversation with it — typing things like "Help me plan a flower-themed birthday party" — and it returns product suggestions, review summaries, and occasion-based recommendations. It launched in June 2025 and is available to U.S. app users. Walmart says customers who use Sparky spend about 35% more per order than those who don't.
Walmart rolled out an AI tool for store employees that analyzes what needs to be done during a shift and recommends the most important tasks in priority order. It cut the time team leads spend planning overnight shifts from 90 minutes down to 30 minutes. The tool launched in June 2025 and is being expanded beyond overnight shifts to other parts of the store day.
Walmart's technology team built and deployed a set of AI-powered tools to help software engineers work faster. These include a coding assistant called Code Buddy, an internal question-answering assistant called DX AI Assistant, and a diagram-generation tool called ArchiText. Walmart says these tools saved its developers around 4 million hours in a single year.
Walmart gave all of its roughly 50,000 corporate (non-store) employees in the U.S. access to a generative AI assistant called My Assistant in August 2023. Employees use it to draft documents, summarize long files, brainstorm ideas, look up benefits information, and onboard to new roles. Walmart was among the first major retailers to deploy a company-wide generative AI tool for office workers.
Walmart Connect offers advertisers an AI tool that automatically generates ad images and branded page layouts from a product listing in minutes. Walmart says the tool reduces the time it takes to produce advertising creative by about 80%. It was announced in January 2026 and is designed to help smaller brands that lack dedicated creative teams.
Walmart uses generative AI to write and improve product descriptions and data for items sold on its website. The company used AI models to create or improve over 850 million pieces of product information — work that Walmart's CEO said would have required nearly 100 times as many employees to complete manually in the same time. Walmart also gives third-party sellers tools to generate their own listings using AI.
Ask Sam is a voice assistant for Walmart store employees. Workers can speak or type questions into the Me@Walmart employee app and immediately get answers — like where a product is on the shelf, what its price is, what their schedule looks like, or what messages managers have sent. It was expanded to all 5,000-plus U.S. Walmart stores in July 2020, and employees ask it over 3 million questions per week.
Walmart uses a generative AI-powered assistant to handle customer support interactions over chat and phone. The assistant can identify who the customer is, understand what they need, and take actions — like finding an order, processing a return, or issuing a refund — without involving a human agent. It is available in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile, and India.
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