Walmart is adding new artificial intelligence (AI) tools to its retail media arm — including a new conversational assistant — as it looks to make advertising campaigns easier to manage and measure.
The updates are arriving to Walmart Connect, the retailer’s global advertising business. In a Jan. 6 corporate blog post, Khurrum Malik, vice president of business and product marketing at Walmart Connect, said the tools are designed to simplify campaign management and give brands clearer insight into ad performance, ultimately helping to drive better results.
As part of the rollout, Walmart is piloting use of its conversational AI assistant, Marty, for sponsored search campaigns. The assistant is an extension of Walmart’s so-called Marty “super agent.” In the meantime, Walmart is also preparing to launch generative AI technology that turns shopping and sales data into more actionable insights for brands, Malik said.
Walmart currently ranks No. 2 in the Top 2000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.
Walmart is also No. 8 in the Global Online Marketplaces. That database ranks the top such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
How Walmart’s Marty and other AI features will be used for campaigns
The move comes as retail media continues to grow rapidly in the U.S. Walmart and Amazon are both major players in that expansion.
U.S. advertisers are expected to spend $69.33 billion on retail media networks in 2026, up from $58.79 billion in 2025, according to eMarketer. Of the $10.53 billion in additional retail media spend, $9.42 billion is expected to go to Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect – with Amazon alone accounting for more than 75% of the market.
As competition intensifies, Walmart is increasingly turning to new technology and upgrades to help brands run more effective campaigns and boost its market share.
The latest AI updates to Walmart Connect focus on improving how advertising is planned, measured and optimized.
“We’re building the future of AI-powered retail media — one that is more intelligent, more connected, and more accountable than ever before, powered by our unparalleled omnichannel scale, solutions, and signals,” Malik wrote in the blog post. “For advertisers, this means campaigns that adapt faster, perform smarter, and prove results with greater certainty.”
A new AI assistant for Walmart advertisers
In the months ahead, Walmart plans to use generative AI to turn its omnichannel shopping and sales data into clearer insights for advertisers.
That includes enhanced end-of-campaign and path-to-conversion reports, Malik said. The technology is expected to debut in the Walmart Connect Ad Center during the retailer’s fiscal 2027, which begins Feb. 1.
Alongside reporting upgrades, Walmart is piloting an agentic AI assistant for sponsored search campaigns.
The ad assistant allows advertisers to ask natural-language questions about topics such as bidding, keywords and billing through a chat-based interface. It then provides recommendations and personalized alerts, Malik said.
Advertisers currently have access to four advanced reports through the assistant, including Change Analysis and multiple impression share benchmarks.
Malik said 97% of queries so far have been unique, suggesting advertisers are using the tool “in highly personalized ways.”
The Marty assistant is expected to roll out to all sponsored search advertisers later this half, he said, with additional capabilities planned. The tool will also power a broader Walmart AI strategy for its super agent. The Marty super agent, first introduced in July 2025, serves as Walmart’s high-level AI agent for partners such as advertisers, sellers and suppliers.
Walmart explores AI-first shopping and advertising experiences
At the same time, Walmart is testing how advertising fits into its agentic AI shopping experiences. That includes Sparky, its virtual assistant for customers.
Walmart began piloting ad formats inside Sparky in fall 2025 and plans to continue experimenting this year, Malik said.
Early data points to growing usage: In an internal survey conducted in August, 81% of Walmart customers said they used Sparky to check product availability or review specifications before making a purchase, he noted.
“Search remains the most popular entry point,” Malik said, “But as customers adopt these new shopping behaviors — as with all new touchpoints — we are exploring ways to help brands continue to meet customers where they are.”
Walmart is also using generative AI to speed up creative production for advertisers. Tools such as the Automated Brand Shop Builder can generate creative assets, including lifestyle imagery, in minutes, he said. Another tool, the Automated Creative Generator, reduced creative production time by about 80%, based on Walmart data from August 2025 through October.
Internally, Walmart is using AI to scale brand support. Associates rely on an AI research assistant to synthesize documents and receive automatically generated, brand-specific insight newsletters via Walmart’s internal associate super agent, Malik said.
Retail media competition shifts toward AI and connected TV
Analysts increasingly see the next phase of retail media competition playing out through AI-powered shopping assistants, including Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus.
The shift is happening alongside continued growth in retail media network spending.
By 2028, U.S. retail media ad spend could approach $98 billion, driven by data, omnichannel reach and offsite channels such as connected TV, according to eMarketer.
For Walmart, connected TV is becoming a key growth lever. Its $2.2 billion acquisition of Vizio in December 2024 has since expanded its CTV footprint and advertising reach.
In fiscal Q3 2026, Walmart reported 53% year-over-year growth in global advertising revenue, which includes Vizio. U.S. advertising revenue, excluding Vizio, rose 33%, driven by online placements, in-app ads, and in-store screens.
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