Walmart’s AI strategy could produce growth

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is taking steps to ensure it can beat its competitors in the number of products it can offer customers.

The retail giant’s latest strategy uses more artificial intelligence in its operations. Walmart recently hired Daniel Danker to serve as its head of global AI acceleration, product and design. Danker’s expertise in product strategy and consumer experience at Instacart, where he served as chief product officer, could assist Walmart in boosting sales.

Danker’s accomplishments at Instacart included the addition of new products. A veteran at defining product strategies for tech companies, he also led the product teams at Uber Eats, Uber Driver and Facebook. He helped launch products such as Facebook Live and Facebook Watch.

Companies everywhere, especially in retail, are racing to adopt AI and to generate more product offerings, revenue and engagement with their customers.

Danker wants to revamp Walmart’s current strategy of conducting sales, he wrote in a LinkedIn post. “We’re on the eve of another transformation, as AI enables us to reinvent commerce and serve customers and communities in entirely new ways.”

Danker’s boss is Walmart CEO Doug McMillion, which demonstrates the importance of AI for the company.

Merging AI into a company’s operations is critical as other companies are also deploying it to encourage more sales.

“These new roles reflect our ambition to move smarter and faster,” McMillon said in a memo to staff, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Walmart also plans to hire an AI platforms leader whose boss will be global chief technology officer Suresh Kumar.

Several other large companies also have C-suite executives whose roles prioritize AI, analyzing data and finding trends and insights about the behaviors of shoppers or their preferences and reporting directly to the CEO.

TaskRabbit’s VP of Data Chi-Yi Kuan and CTO Ron Forrester report to their CEO, while casino company Wind Creek Hospitality developed the role of chief data and analytics officer in 2021. After Wind Creek Hospitality hired Ganesh Bala for the position, the company was able to use its data for predictive analytics in marketing the casino.

Other companies are filling roles for chief data officers, chief AI officers and chief data and analytics officers, Ryan Bulkoski, global head of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles’ Data, Analytics & AI Practice, told the Wall Street Journal.

Walmart’s e-commerce sales rose by 22% in the first quarter from a year earlier, while overall revenue grew 2.5%. Walmart’s stock is little changed from six months ago, but rose by 41% during the past year.

The company already has adopted AI for internal purposes, including scheduling shifts for its employees to save managers time and an AI bot that lets its workers hone their interview skills virtually.

As the shopping habits of consumers have changed over the past few years, Walmart is preparing for more transformations, especially for more mundane tasks. AI agents could shop for people in the future and avoid advertising and marketing gimmicks that often lure shoppers to add items to a purchase.

“It will be different,” said Walmart U.S. Chief Technology Officer Hari Vasudev, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Advertising will have to evolve.”
People could ask the AI agent to replenish their weekly groceries or buy other more expensive items such as a laptop. The AI agent could search online for an individual and make recommendations based on previous purchases.

For Walmart, AI opportunities clearly abound.