Walmart Launches AI Super Agents to Accelerate E-Commerce

Key Takeaways:

• Walmart is launching four AI super agents—for shoppers, employees, sellers, and developers—built on agentic AI that acts autonomously with minimal human input.
  

• The tools aim to improve e-commerce growth, which Walmart wants to increase to 50% of total sales within five years.
  

• “Sparky,” the customer-facing agent, is already active in the Walmart app, with new capabilities including event planning and product suggestions using computer vision.
  

• The Associate, Marty, and Developer agents will streamline workforce tasks, seller onboarding, ad creation, and internal software development.
  

• Walmart’s AI push comes amid broader concerns over AI-related job impacts, although the company has not explicitly linked recent layoffs to automation.

Walmart Leans Into Agentic AI to Drive Retail Transformation

Walmart announced Thursday that it will deploy a new generation of AI-powered super agents designed to become the main way people interact with the company across its e-commerce and operational platforms, according to a report from Reuters.

The four agentic AI systems—targeted at shoppers, store employees, sellers and suppliers, and software developers—are intended to consolidate existing tools and act as the central interface for all AI-driven experiences at Walmart.

“Agents can help automate and simplify pretty much everything that we do,” said Suresh Kumar, Walmart’s global CTO. “Customers are ready—they are using AI in pretty much everything they do.”

These agents are part of Walmart’s plan to use AI to streamline the shopping experience, speed up logistics, and deepen personalization—all while competing more aggressively with Amazon, which has also introduced its own suite of generative AI tools.

Walmart Wants Half of Sales Online

The new agents are designed to support a long-term goal: growing e-commerce sales to 50% of total revenue within five years. In fiscal 2023, Walmart reported $648 billion in sales, but most of that came from physical stores.

By automating tasks like product discovery, returns processing, delivery optimization, and customer support, the retailer hopes to make its digital shopping experience more seamless—and more competitive.

Meet the Super Agents

🛍️ Sparky – for Shoppers

Already live in the Walmart mobile app, Sparky uses generative AI to assist with tasks like product suggestions, summarizing reviews, and finding compatible items (e.g. printer ink).

In its upcoming super agent form, Sparky will:

• Reorder frequently purchased items

• Plan themed events (like a “unicorn birthday party”)

• Use computer vision to suggest recipes based on what’s in your fridge

👥 Associate – for Employees

Rolling out in the coming months, the Associate agent will help store and corporate staff complete tasks like:

• Submitting HR requests, such as parental leave

• Accessing real-time sales data for specific products or categories

• Replacing separate AI tools currently used for similar queries

📦 Marty – for Sellers and Suppliers

Marty is aimed at streamlining business interactions across Walmart’s vast retail and advertising ecosystem:

• Simplifying onboarding for suppliers and third-party sellers

• Managing inventory and order workflows

• Creating and optimizing AI-driven ad campaigns

🧑‍💻 Developer – for Internal Tech Teams

The Developer agent will serve as a platform for Walmart engineers to test, build, and deploy future AI applications across the company.

Agentic AI vs. Generative AI

Walmart emphasized that its new agents are not just chatbots—they’re powered by agentic AI, a next-generation form of generative AI that can make decisions and complete tasks with minimal human input.

This shift from suggestion to autonomous execution marks a broader trend in enterprise AI: using systems that initiate, adapt, and deliver outcomes rather than just respond.

Executive Changes Signal AI Acceleration

Walmart is backing its AI plans with new leadership moves:

• Daniel Danker, formerly of Instacart, has joined as EVP of AI acceleration, product, and design

• A second EVP role focused solely on AI has been created and is currently unfilled

These changes highlight the company’s intention to treat AI not as an enhancement—but as a core business driver.

AI Adoption and Workforce Uncertainty

While Walmart says the new AI tools will enhance productivity, the company has not commented on whether any job reductions are directly tied to AI deployment.

“It will create new jobs,” said Dave Glick, SVP of enterprise business systems, though he did not provide specifics.

Other tech giants have been more direct. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said generative AI and agents will reduce the company’s corporate workforce in the coming years. Microsoft and Google have also laid off thousands of employees while ramping up AI development.

Though Walmart has avoided large-scale AI-related layoffs, it has:

• Downsized corporate teams

• Increased automation in fulfillment centers, leading to some workforce reductions

Q&A: Walmart’s AI Super Agents

Q: What are Walmart's AI super agents?
A: A suite of four AI-powered tools designed to assist shoppers, employees, sellers, and developers by automating and improving tasks across the Walmart ecosystem.

Q: What is Sparky, and how does it work?
A: Sparky is the customer-facing AI agent in Walmart’s app. It suggests products, summarizes reviews, and in future updates, will help reorder items, plan events, and offer suggestions via computer vision.

Q: What is agentic AI?
A: Agentic AI is an advanced form of generative AI that can complete tasks autonomously, without needing step-by-step human guidance.

Q: Will these tools replace jobs at Walmart?
A: Walmart hasn’t confirmed any AI-related layoffs but has downsized parts of its workforce and automated some operations.

Q: Why is Walmart launching these agents now?
A: Walmart says customers are ready for AI and expects the agents to streamline e-commerce and increase productivity across departments.

Q: What’s the long-term goal?
A: Walmart aims for 50% of all sales to come from online channels, with AI playing a key role in reaching that target.

What This Means

By embedding AI into customer service, workforce tools, supplier platforms, and developer workflows, Walmart is not simply adding AI—it’s redesigning its internal and external systems around it.

Unlike some tech companies that have announced large-scale layoffs tied to AI adoption, Walmart appears to be taking a more incremental approach—reducing corporate staff and automating select fulfillment roles as part of its broader AI-driven supply chain modernization, rather than eliminating jobs outright. The company has emphasized that AI will create new types of roles, even as it streamlines existing operations.

While questions remain about how much automation will ultimately reshape the retail workforce, Walmart’s strategy reflects growing confidence that autonomous AI agents will be the next major platform shift in commerce—and the next front in the race for retail dominance.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.