Khaberni - In a move that could redefine the landscape of global online shopping, Walmart announced a strategic partnership with "OpenAI" allowing integration of its entire product catalog within the "ChatGPT" platform, enabling users to plan, shop, and make payments directly through a single smart conversation.
According to "Thomas Guide" website, it is now possible to ask "ChatGPT" to plan a week's dinner or restock cleaning supplies, as it will suggest suitable Walmart products and enable instant purchase without needing to scroll through menus or undertake extensive manual searches.
A smarter experience
In turn, Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, said: "Online shopping has remained a rigid experience limited to a search bar and endless lists of results for years, but the new feature transforms shopping into a smarter, more realistic experience, an integrated, multimedia, personalized experience that interacts with the user in their real context."
This move is part of what the company calls "Agentic Commerce," a new vision to transform artificial intelligence from a responsive tool to a proactive assistant that predicts needs and suggests solutions before they are requested by the user.
For his part, Sam Altman, CEO of "OpenAI," said: "We are excited to collaborate with Walmart to make everyday shopping easier and smoother. This collaboration embodies how artificial intelligence can become a natural part of people's daily lives."
Simplifying tasks
Despite its increased focus on artificial intelligence, Walmart emphasizes that the goal is not to replace employees, but to reduce friction and simplify repetitive tasks, to make the customer and employee experience smarter and more flexible.
This partnership is an extension of Walmart’s strategy to employ technology to enhance efficiency from using artificial intelligence to reduce fashion design time from 18 weeks to just a few days, to accelerating customer service and reducing problem-solving time by up to 40%.
The company also launched the internal "ChatGPT Enterprise" platform to train its employees and certify them in "OpenAI" tools.
Through this partnership, Walmart is doubling down on its promise to combine low prices and fast delivery, and now artificial intelligence to redefine the shape of shopping in the age of artificial intelligence.
