Walmart is also playing with AI: demonstrating new retail technologies such as drones at CES

Suresh Kumar, global chief technology officer and chief development officer of Walmart, said that although omni-channel retail has existed for decades, this new type of "adaptive retail" has taken another step forward. This kind of retail is not just e-commerce or in-store retail, but a unified retail experience that seamlessly incorporates the best of all channels. For Walmart, adaptive retail is rooted in a clear focus on people.

Technology announced includes a 10-club pilot project in which Sam’s Club is experimenting with AI and computer vision to eliminate queues in club exit areas, a beta social commerce platform and drone expansion plan.

The following is Walmart’s disclosure of new retail technology and expansion plans this week.

01. AI and computer vision used in exports

Sam’s is currently piloting 10 member stores, the first application AI and computer vision technology to eliminate queues in the exit area of ​​member stores.

This technology is used to seamlessly confirm that members have completed payment for all items in their shopping cart, without requiring an employee to check the member's purchase before they leave.

Prior to this, members needed to queue at the exit and have their shopping receipts checked by the greeter at the exit of the Sam's Club store.

Now , after the member completes payment at the checkout counter or through "scan and go", a combination of computer vision and digital technology deployed in the exit area will capture the image of the shopping cart and verify the payment status of all items in the member's shopping basket, and AI will work in the background Work to keep accelerating the process.

As AI continues to learn and improve across thousands of items and exit transactions at Sam’s Club stores, Sam said it will continue to iterate and enhance the technology in early 2024,and It is planned to quickly promote it to nearly 600 member storesby the end of this year.

02. Drone delivery expansion

Walmart is expanding its drone delivery business to 1.8 million homes in Texas , delivery coverage includes stores in more than 30 towns and municipalities in the DFW metropolitan area, marking the first time a U.S. retailer has offered drone delivery services to so many households in a single market.

These delivery services will be provided by on-demand drone delivery service providers Wing and Zipline. Both companies have approval from the FAA to fly drones without specialized observers in sight at all times, known as beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

Walmart said: Drone delivery can deliver goods to customers in 30 minutes or less, and some deliveries can be delivered within 10 minutes. Among the 120,000 items in Walmart supermarkets, 75% meet the size and weight requirements for drone delivery. In the past two years of drone delivery trials, Walmart has completed more than 20,000 safe deliveries.

03. GenAI: “My Assistant”

Last August, Walmart launched an AI assistant called “My Assistant” for campus employees in the United States and Canada. Assistant’s generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tool, which was independently developed by Walmart’s technical team.

Walmart announced that it plans to roll out its proprietary My Assistant tool to 11 countries in 2024. At the same time, employees in the United States are already using the tool to draft first drafts faster, assemble large amounts of documents in seconds, and stimulate creativity through heuristic thinking on a variety of topics.

In the future, Walmart plans to expand the tool to employees in 11 countries (including India and South Africa this year), employees will be able to interact with the tool in their native language, and the tool will be loaded with Walmart’s proprietary knowledge.

Walmart expects that 25,000 employees in international markets will use this tool this year, and the number of users will increase by 50%. In 2023, My Assistant has been launched to 50,000 campus employees in the United States.

04.GenAI-driven search

All customers who use the latest version of the Walmart app (version 23.47 and above) and log in to their Walmart account can now Use a new search experience on iOS powered by GenAI that generates relevant results across categories.

The enhanced search experience now allows customers to search based on specific purposes, for example, searching for watching football games instead of searching separately for chips, wings, drinks and 90-inch TVs.

GenAI Search can also consider various other factors such as location, search history and other contextual information to further refine customer search results.

Walmart said that GenAI uses a combination of Walmart’s proprietary data and technology, large language models (including models available in Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service), and retail-specific models built by Walmart. The new design provides a curated list of the best items shoppers are looking for.

05. Social commerce platform

Walmart disclosed a platform called "Shop with Friends" (with friends Shop Together) beta social commerce platform. Through augmented reality (AR) shopping, customers can share the virtual outfits they create with friends and get feedback on their "fashion finds."

Shop with Friends uses basic functions such as augmented reality virtual try-on, generative AI, and business API. Customers can use it to mix and match outfits, creating virtual outfits on a model of similar size and shape.

Users have the flexibility to create multiple outfits and share their “fashion finds” with friends to solicit their feedback. The tool integrates with popular mobile sharing apps so each invited user can “like” their favorite looks and contribute to the decision-making process.

Walmart said, “We know shopping with friends is more fun and engaging, so Shop with Friends takes virtual try-on to the next level,making the shopping experience more social Transformation."