Walmart has unveiled its proprietary artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and immersive commerce platforms, which it says will improve shopping experiences.

More specifically, the US multinational retailer, Walmart, believes they will help to deliver ‘hyper-personalised’, accessible, and engaging experiences for shoppers across its Walmart stores, Sam’s Clubs, apps, and more.

The technologies include Wallaby, a series of large language models (LLMs) for retail, a new AI-powered customer support assistant, a Content Decision Platform for tailored shopping experiences, and an AR platform called Retina to create 3D assets for ‘Adaptive Retail’.

Suresh Kumar, Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer, Walmart Inc., explains that its technological innovations are created with their customers’ needs in mind: “A standard search bar is no longer the fastest path to purchase, rather we must use technology to adapt to customers’ individual preferences and needs.

“At the heart of our platform strategy is developing common global core capabilities that are built once and deployed across Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club and Walmart International.

“As a global company with multiple business segments, this enables us to move with speed as we bring consistent experiences to all our customers and members.”

Kumar continued: “Being people-led means we start with the human need, and often, a combination of technologies like AI, GenAI, AR and Immersive Commerce, is key to the solution.

“Our customers guide us, and with these platforms, we’re ready for whatever they need.”

Wallaby LLMs and Customer Chatbot

Walmart has introduced ‘Wallaby’, a series of LLMs for retails that will be used in customer-facing experiences.

Trained on decades of Walmart data, Wallaby can also be combined with other LLMs to create highly personalised and contextual information, while being able to offer responses in a ‘natural tone’ that also supports Walmart’s values.

The retailer has added a new, more personalised version of its AI Customer Support Assistant, which knows who the customer is from the beginning of interactions, as well as understanding customer intent, and performing actions like surfacing orders and handling returns.

In a press release by Walmart, it said it is currently building ‘dozens’ of further generative AI tools for customers, associates, members, and partners, such as care assistants for Walmart International and Sam’s Club.

Content Decision Platform

A Content Decision Platform has been developed, in accordance with Walmart’s Digital Trust Commitments and Responsible AI Pledge, which acts as a foundational tool to enable customised shopping experiences for customers.

Using AI technology to understand customers and generative AI to pre-empt content preferences for Walmart’s website. This has already reportedly been applied to parts of the website.

According to Walmart, the technology will help it to create unique homepages based on the preferences of each shopper to come to its homepage.

The Content Decision Platform will be launched in the US by the end of 2025, which it plans to similarly apply to its Canada and Mexico markets in due course, thereby establishing a ‘new standard in global retail.

Retina AR Platform

Finally, Walmart has created ‘Retina’, an AR platform that uses AI, generative AI, and automation to create thousands of 3D assets and Immersive Commerce APIs.

Together, these will allow companies to apply Walmart’s shopping experience to virtual social environments, increase revenue, and power ‘Adaptive Retail’. The latter buzz term refers to a retailer’s ability to shift their products or services to meet changing customer demands.

Walmart is now using its Immersive Commerce APIs for alpha testing with Unity and it will leverage the APIs to launch a new experience with ZEPETO.

Retina also enables ten AR experiences for Walmart US and Sam’s Club that has led to a ten times increase in adoption.

The company is planning to release View in Your Home in Canada, Chile, and Mexico using Retina and add more interactive experiences, including ‘hotspots’ that lets customers access production information as they are viewing products in 3D.

Walmart announced in June this year it had updated its customer shopping app with two novel augmented reality (AR) solutions aimed at improving shopper experiences.