Walmart Embraces AI Technology with Its 'Super Agent' Plan
Walmart Streamlines AI Capabilities with New Unified Framework
Walmart has announced a new companywide artificial intelligence (AI) framework aimed at streamlining and unifying AI capabilities across the business. The new framework consolidates various AI tools into four main “super agents” that support different user groups: customers, associates, partners, and developers.
The four super agents and their roles are as follows:
- Sparky (customer-facing agent): This agent assists customers with product discovery, purchase recommendations, reviewing products, reordering items, event planning, and enhancing shopping experiences through features like computer vision to suggest recipes from fridge contents. It is designed to make shopping effortless and personalized.
- Marty (partner agent): This agent serves suppliers, sellers, and advertisers by streamlining onboarding, managing orders, automating advertising campaigns, providing analytics, and improving partner interactions with Walmart’s ecommerce platform.
- Store-centric associate agent: This agent supports Walmart store employees by centralizing processes such as scheduling, accessing sales data, and providing real-time tools (e.g., language translation) to better assist customers and improve operational efficiency.
- Agent for company tech developers: This agent accelerates software testing, building, and launching processes to boost productivity and innovation within Walmart’s technology teams, saving millions of developer hours annually.
This unified super agent system was created to make AI tools simpler, more accessible, and more effective for all Walmart stakeholders — customers, associates, partners, and internal developers—while driving productivity, speed, innovation, and ecommerce growth.
Walmart's new AI approach comes after the company announced its use of AI for combating fraud in its marketplace just two days earlier. The company has also launched a new merchant agent called Wally and is developing a subagent for its associate super AI agent to assist with benefits-related questions.
Moreover, Walmart is focused on digital twin technology, which has tracked HVAC, refrigeration, and kitchen appliances across stores, reducing emergency maintenance by 30% and repair costs by nearly 20% in pilot cases. The company is also using AI and real-time monitoring to review product listings for intellectual property infringement or other policy violations.
In addition, Walmart has launched a new companywide artificial intelligence framework that makes three-hour delivery to 95% of U.S. households possible by the end of this year. AI has also cut fashion production timelines by up to 18 weeks at Walmart.
Target is using AI to monitor trends emerging from social media in order to highlight relevant products. Walmart has also created a new executive vice president of AI platforms position, which will report to Walmart’s Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer Suresh Kumar. Daniel Danker has been appointed as Walmart’s executive vice president of AI acceleration, product, and design.
Walmart teams can build and share small, purpose-built AI tools, called nano agents, in as little as a week. The framework is centered around four "super agents" to support various business touchpoints. The framework also includes a store-centric associate agent and an agent for company tech developers.
In summary, Walmart’s AI framework uses Sparky, Marty, the associate agent, and the developer agent as specialized “super agents” that each address distinct business needs, enabling a cohesive AI ecosystem that enhances customer experience, supports employees, optimizes partner relations, and accelerates tech development across the company.
- Walmart's new AI framework, designed to streamline and unify AI capabilities across the business, has introduced four super agents: Sparky, Marty, the associate agent, and the developer agent, each addressing distinct business needs.
- Sparky, the customer-facing super agent, assists customers with various tasks such as product discovery, purchase recommendations, and even event planning, aiming to make shopping effortless and personalized.
- In the fashion industry, Walmart has used AI to cut production timelines by up to 18 weeks.
- AI is also being used by Walmart to review product listings for intellectual property infringement or other policy violations, ensuring compliance with the company's business policies.
