While Wall Street obsesses over the Magnificent Seven tech stocks, Walmart is quietly proving it may have the most practical edge in AI — solving real-world problems at an unmatched scale.
Beyond Silicon Valley’s Digital Playbook
The AI boom has largely been defined by tech-first companies: OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, Anthropic, and the chipmakers like Nvidia and Intel that provide the backbone for AI training. Tesla and Amazon represent the next tier, applying AI in robotics, logistics, and customer experience.
But Walmart — the world’s largest retailer, with over 4,700 U.S. stores and billions of items moved every year — is emerging as a surprising AI leader in the physical world.
Instead of optimizing data pipelines or training foundation models, Walmart is using AI to optimize how eggs, milk, and thousands of other products flow through its stores, warehouses, and fulfillment networks.
AI in Action: From Digital Twins to Store Chatbots
At the Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference, Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner explained that the company has been investing in machine learning and automation since 2015.
Some highlights of Walmart’s AI strategy:
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Digital Twins: Every warehouse and facility has a virtual replica that helps model product movement and forecast bottlenecks.
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Inventory Optimization: AI ensures products hit the right shelves at the right time, improving stock accuracy and reducing waste.
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In-Store Chatbots: Associates carry AI-powered assistants on handheld devices to set priorities, answer customer queries, and make real-time decisions.
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Fulfillment Speed: AI-driven logistics reduce delivery times to minutes, matching store assortments with local demand.
“We move billions of items around every month, every year,” Furner said. “The combination of physical AI and generative AI will be transformative.”
Walmart’s “Super Agents”
The retailer experimented with hundreds of specialized AI micro-agents — one to track local events, another to monitor stock levels, others to assist coders or sellers.
But too many agents created confusion. In response, Walmart condensed its tools into four “super agents” built for:
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Shoppers
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Merchandisers
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Programmers
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Third-party marketplace sellers
This streamlining reflects the company’s core advantage: building practical AI in-house for its frontline workers and customers.
A New Era of Retail Experimentation
David Guggina, Walmart’s head of e-commerce, described how AI has reshaped experimentation:
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What once took weeks for data scientists now takes minutes.
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AI enables continuous testing across fulfillment centers and supply chains.
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Associates can instantly adjust strategies based on real-time AI-driven insights.
Guggina likened Walmart’s AI journey to a baseball game:
“We’ve just completed the third inning. We’re still early in our automation journey.”
Deepening the AI Talent and Partnerships
Walmart’s ambition is reinforced by bold moves:
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Daniel Danker, a former Instacart executive, joined in July to accelerate AI initiatives.
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OpenAI Partnership: This month, Walmart expanded access to enterprise-level ChatGPT, rolling out training programs for associates and deploying tools across Sam’s Club warehouses.
The goal isn’t just productivity — it’s customer impact: ensuring that when you order a gallon of milk, it arrives cold and on time.
Why Walmart’s AI Edge Matters
Unlike most AI leaders, Walmart’s advantage isn’t theoretical or confined to screens. Its AI initiatives live in store aisles, supply chains, and checkout counters — where billions of transactions happen.
With 20,000 engineers and technologists building proprietary tools in-house, Walmart is positioning itself as the retail world’s AI gladiator: practical, grounded, and impossible to ignore.
AI can hallucinate online, but as Walmart’s executives like to point out, “there’s no faking a cold gallon of milk on your doorstep.”
