Retail giant Walmart embraces artificial intelligence through a strategic approach, dubbed as 'super agent'.
Walmart has rolled out a new companywide artificial intelligence (AI) framework, centred around four AI-powered "super agents" - Sparky, the Associate agent, Marty, and the Developer agent - that consolidate hundreds of specialized AI tools into a streamlined, hierarchical system.
This framework aims to simplify and unify how customers, associates, suppliers, sellers, and developers interact with Walmart's AI capabilities by providing a single, intuitive interface tailored to each user group.
The super agents improve experiences as follows:
Customer Experience
Sparky, the customer shopping agent, is embedded in Walmart’s app and helps customers find products, reorder items, summarize reviews, and answer complex questions. Sparky is evolving to manage more complex, multi-step tasks, making shopping easier and more personalized.
Associate Experience
The associate super agent assists Walmart employees by enabling easier task management such as scheduling parental leave and accessing relevant sales data with minimal input, helping to streamline operations and reduce manual overhead.
Partner Experience
Marty, the partner agent, supports suppliers, sellers, and advertisers by managing onboarding processes, orders, and marketing campaigns more efficiently, improving collaboration and supply chain responsiveness.
Developer Experience
The developer super agent accelerates the capacity to build, test, and launch new innovations within Walmart, fostering agility in technology deployment across the company.
Walmart has also developed a capability to build and share small, purpose-built AI tools, called nano agents, in as little as a week. This restructuring enhances decision-making speed and accuracy in crucial areas such as e-commerce, supply chain, and customer service.
In addition to Sparky, Walmart has launched a merchant agent called Wally, intended to unify fragmented systems and provide support for managing catalogs and speeding up campaign setup. The associate super AI agent includes a subagent for benefits-related questions and a query subagent providing workforce data insights to leaders.
Walmart's AI approach not only consolidates and simplifies its AI ecosystem but also scales agentic AI - the use of autonomous AI systems capable of handling complex, multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention. This restructuring aims to support Walmart’s ambitious goal of having half of its total revenue generated through advanced AI-driven sales within five years.
Walmart is also integrating this AI framework with cutting-edge technology such as drones and real-time digital twins of facilities to predict and prevent operational issues proactively. AI combined with geospatial data and real-time logistics insights aim to offer dynamic delivery windows to 95% of households by the end of the year, further enriching customer service and supply chain efficiency.
Walmart has already seen significant benefits from its AI implementation. AI use has cut resolution times in customer support by up to 40%, minimized time needed for shift planning by team leads from 90 minutes to just 30 minutes, and cut fashion production timelines by up to 18 weeks. The company has also announced its new AI approach two days after touting the usage of AI for combating fraud in its marketplace, using AI and real-time monitoring to review product listings for intellectual property infringement or other policy violations.
[1] Walmart Newsroom. (2023). Walmart launches new AI framework with four super agents. Retrieved from https://news.walmart.com/news/walmart-launches-new-ai-framework-with-four-super-agents
[2] TechCrunch. (2023). Walmart's new AI strategy aims to unify and simplify its vast AI ecosystem. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/01/walmarts-new-ai-strategy-aims-to-unify-and-simplify-its-vast-ai-ecosystem/
[3] VentureBeat. (2023). Walmart's new AI framework is a game-changer for its business. Retrieved from https://venturebeat.com/2023/03/01/walmarts-new-ai-framework-is-a-game-changer-for-its-business/
[4] Walmart Newsroom. (2023). Sparky, Walmart's customer-facing AI agent, now supports event planning, reordering, and always-on customer support. Retrieved from https://news.walmart.com/news/sparky-walmarts-customer-facing-ai-agent-now-supports-event-planning-reordering-and-always-on-customer-support
[5] Walmart Newsroom. (2023). Walmart announces plans to make three-hour delivery to 95% of U.S. households possible by the end of the year. Retrieved from https://news.walmart.com/news/walmart-announces-plans-to-make-three-hour-delivery-to-95-of-u-s-households-possible-by-the-end-of-the-year
- The newly introduced AI framework by Walmart, featured with four 'super agents', aims to create a unified and simplified interface for customers, associates, suppliers, sellers, and developers to interact with the company's AI capabilities.
- Sparky, Walmart's customer shopping agent, embedded in their app, assists customers with product discovery, reordering, review summarization, and answering complex questions, and is now evolving to manage more complex, multi-step tasks.
- The associate super agent, a part of Walmart's AI framework, helps streamline operations by enabling easier task management for employees, such as scheduling parental leave and accessing relevant sales data.
- Walmart's AI initiative also encompasses the development of nano agents - small, purpose-built AI tools that can be created in as little as a week, enhancing decision-making speed and accuracy in areas like e-commerce, supply chain, and customer service.
