Walmart, the world's largest retailer, shares its plans to adapt retail for customers, its associates and the community.
During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in the first month of the year in Las Vegas, Walmart revealed how some of its latest technologies will enable it to deliver a new kind of customer-centric, connected, frictionless commerce that continually exceeds expectations. Additionally, the company has laid out its plan for continuous innovation, specifically how the technology it builds will benefit customers, members, partner teams, and society.
“We build technology to serve people, not the other way around,” Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said at CES.
Clients and colleagues
Walmart showcased how AI, GenAI and augmented reality technologies will reimagine the retailer's role as a shopping destination to act as an assistant to the customer. Specifically, Walmart unveiled a new GenAI-powered search experience now available to iOS customers. The experience allows you to search by specific situations, for example, a football viewing party versus individual searches for fries, drinks, and a 90-inch TV.
A look at Walmart InHome Replenishment, which uses artificial intelligence and Walmart's decades of replenishment experience to ensure shopping carts are filled with the right items at the right time and delivered to your kitchen or garage refrigerator.
An experimental social commerce platform called Shop with Friends is transforming shopping with augmented reality by enabling sharing of listings with friends and receiving feedback.
But adaptive retailing isn't just about research and discovery; It's about creating personalized, seamless, flexible and immersive shopping experiences.
Sam's Club has introduced new technology that solves the problem of waiting to check receipts when leaving the club. It uses a leading application of artificial intelligence and computer vision technology.
Walmart's vision for the future of retail also includes improving the convenience of customers receiving items in less than 30 minutes by expanding drone delivery to an additional 1.8 million homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 75% of the region. Of the 120,000 items in the Supercenter, 75% meet the size and weight requirements for drone delivery, and the size and weight requirements for drone delivery.
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Associated
Walmart is focused on developing exceptional technology for its 2.1 million customers and associates around the world. In August, it launched a GenAI tool for colleagues in the US and Canada called My Assistant. The tool will be expanded so that next year employees in 11 countries will interact with My Assistant in their native language to work and solve problems.
Community
As a company developing technology for good, since 2005 Walmart has been working to reduce the impact of its operations on the environment. Today, more than 47% of its operations use renewable energy and will reach more than 50% by 2025 and 100% by 2035.
Walmart also announced ambitious clean energy goals at CES.
By the end of 2030, the retail giant intends to advance its transition to zero-emission energy by servicing up to 10 gigawatts of new on-site and off-site clean energy projects, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of more than two million homes.
