Walmart’s December 9 move to the Nasdaq was more than just a symbolic gesture. The US$905 billion retailer is making its boldest claim yet. The company is no longer a traditional discount chain, but a technology company that uses AI to fundamentally reshape retail operations.
But beyond the parade of marketing spin and AI announcements, what is truly changing at the world’s largest retailer, and where is the gap between ambition and execution?
Axis of Agentic AI: Built purpose-built, not off-the-shelf
Walmart’s AI strategy is very different from its competitors, which chase general-purpose, large-scale language models. CTO Hari Vasudev said the company is deploying what it calls “dedicated agent AI,” meaning specialized tools trained on Walmart’s own retail data rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
“Walmart’s approach to agent AI is surgical,” Vasudev wrote in a May 2025 blog post. “Early and extensive testing has proven to us that agents work best when deployed for very specific tasks, producing outputs and stitching them together to orchestrate and solve complex workflows.”
The company says this will lead to concrete applications. Walmart’s “Trend-to-Product” system cuts fashion production schedules by 18 weeks. GenAI Customer Support Assistant now routes and resolves issues autonomously without human intervention.
Developer productivity tools handle test generation and error resolution in your CI/CD pipeline. Meanwhile, the company’s retail-only LLM, Wallaby, is trained on decades of Walmart transaction data to power everything from comparing products to completing personalized shopping journeys.
What infrastructure supports this? Element is Walmart’s proprietary MLOps platform designed to avoid vendor lock-in and optimize GPU usage across multiple cloud providers. It’s an internal “factory” that gives Walmart speed and flexibility that competitors struggling with third-party platforms can’t match.
Real numbers: When AI has measurable impact
Walmart is unusually transparent about certain ROI metrics, offering a glimpse into the company’s AI economics.
Data manipulation: According to CEO Doug McMillon’s August 2024 earnings call, GenAI has improved over 850 million product catalog data points. This required 100 times more people than using manual processes.
Supply chain efficiency: AI-powered route optimization reduced 30 million unnecessary delivery miles and avoided 94 million pounds (42,000 tons) of CO2 emissions. The company won the prestigious Franz Edelman Prize in 2023 for this technology and has since commercialized it as a SaaS product for other companies.
Store management: Digital twin technology predicts chiller failures up to two weeks in advance and automatically generates work orders with visual models, wiring diagrams, and required parts. Sam’s Club’s AI-powered exit technology has reduced member checkout times by 21%, and more than 64% of members now use the friction-free system at all locations.
Customer experience: The dynamic delivery algorithm analyzes traffic patterns, weather conditions, and order complexity to predict delivery times to the minute, enabling expedited deliveries in 17 minutes in the markets the company tested.
Human cost: “AI will change every job”
McMillon did not clearly explain the impact on the workforce. “It’s clear that AI is going to change literally every job,” he said, speaking at the Workforce Conference in Bentonville in September 2025. “There may be jobs in the world that won’t change because of AI, but I’ve never thought about that.”
But Walmart sees this as a transformation, not an exclusion. McMillon expects total headcount to remain flat even as sales increase. In other words, jobs will not disappear, but will change. White-collar roles will be among the earliest to be disrupted by chatbots handling customer service and supply chain tracking, while store and warehouse workers will eventually see their tasks absorbed by autonomous systems.
The company is investing heavily in reskilling programs. “We have to create an opportunity for everyone to get to the other side,” McMillon said at a news conference in Bentonville. “It used to be 85% physical, but now it’s 85% mental,” said Chance, an automation equipment operator at a Walmart distribution center in Palestine, Texas. “I’m solving problems with my mind, not just my body.”
Nasdaq Strategy: Repositioning High-Tech Ratings
Walmart’s exchange move was clearly framed around AI transformation. CFO John David Rainey said the move reflects the company is “setting a new standard in omnichannel retail by integrating automation and AI.”
Subtext? Walmart wants the valuation multiples that tech companies demand. With a P/E ratio of 40.3x, higher than Amazon and Microsoft, the market partially supports the transformation story. A potential inclusion in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index would encourage passive fund investing regardless of AI implementation.
Analysts are divided on whether the premium is justified. Jefferies’ Corey Tarlow argued that the move shows Walmart is “a technology company, not a traditional retailer.” But skeptics point out that despite commercializing tools like route optimization, the company still makes money from razor-thin retail margins rather than higher-margin software and cloud services.
Verdict: Real Transformation with Execution Risk
Walmart’s AI strategy is neither just hype nor guaranteed success. The company has made structural investments in its own infrastructure, deploying AI at full scale with published operational benefits, and recognizes the impact on employees that most companies avoid.
However, significant execution risks remain, including managing a fragmented agent ecosystem, preventing large-scale algorithmic bias, competing with external shopping agents, and determining appropriate automation boundaries while maintaining accuracy.
The company’s candor about its challenges – “often the most effective approach is a co-pilot model, where humans and AI work as a team” – suggests that leaders understand that AI is not a silver bullet.
The lesson for companies looking at Walmart’s strategy is to build on specificity, not generality. Even if you invest in your own data moat, plan to transform your workforce as well as reduce costs, and have vast resources and technical talent, recognize that agent AI is still a nascent technology with real limitations.
The question isn’t whether Walmart uses AI. It’s obvious that it’s actually used. The question is whether this surgical, infrastructure-focused approach provides a sustainable competitive advantage, or whether the company is automating itself into the same low-margin trap with better tools.
The answer won’t be clear for several years, but Walmart’s willingness to bet its $905 billion market capitalization on this transformation suggests that management believes in the former.
SEE ALSO: Walmart and Amazon power retail transformation with AI
Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out the AI & Big Data Expo in Amsterdam, California, and London. This comprehensive event is part of TechEx and co-located with other major technology events. Click here for more information.
AI News is brought to you by TechForge Media. Learn about other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars.
