Dive Brief:
- Walmart on Tuesday introduced Wally, a generative AI assistant for its merchants.
- The tool is designed to streamline time-consuming tasks for merchants in an intuitive way. Wally can conduct data entry and analysis, diagnose product performance, answer operational questions and complete advanced calculations.
- The AI model used in Wally has an advanced algorithm enabling it to process larger volumes of product data. The company said it plans to continuously improve the tool with feedback from Walmart merchants.
Dive Insight:
Wally is intended to help merchants better understand product performance, including why some products are under or overperforming or which categories had the largest gross merchandise value increases.
“By automating time-consuming tasks and providing actionable insights, Wally enables merchants to focus on strategic, creative and innovative activities that enhance customer experiences and meet evolving customer expectations,” the retailer said in a statement.
Walmart was an early adopter of generative AI. The retailer has incorporated generative AI for its associates to help them answer customer product questions or to help a shopper find a specific item. It also deployed the tech to improve its search, summarize reviews, prioritize product features for customers, and as part of a spatial design tool.
Behind consumer-facing use cases, Walmart also incorporated generative AI for coding assistance. The retailer reports the tech helped save about 4 million developer hours, streamlining deployments and delivering code faster with fewer bugs.
Many other retailers are leaning on generative AI as part of company operations. In a recent earnings call, Target said it used the tool with social media, tapping generative AI to catch online trends and boost relevant products faster on its storefront, curating its digital experience.