Walmart's Agentic Commerce Vision: Four Pillars and Less Scrolling Shopping

Key Takeaways

Walmart launches AI-driven agentic commerce strategy in full swing
Partnering with Google and OpenAI to establish conversational shopping industry standards
Four pillars: practicality, personalization, immersion, and anticipatory commerce

Walmart's Agentic Commerce Vision

Walmart's agentic commerce vision: Practical, personalized, immersive and less scrolling

Walmart's AI Acceleration VP Daniel Danker shares the company's agentic commerce vision

Walmart, the largest U.S. retailer, has unveiled a comprehensive vision for "agentic commerce," a next-generation shopping experience powered by AI agents. According to a report by Constellation Research on January 13, 2026, Daniel Danker, VP of AI Acceleration at the company, declared that "this year is the year experimentation turns into transformation."

Through strategic partnerships with major AI companies like OpenAI and Google, Walmart is positioning itself not as a company to be "disrupted by" AI agents, but as "the backbone of execution and fulfillment."

Background and Industry Trends

Agentic commerce refers to a form of commerce where AI evolves from the passive role of "search and discover" to an autonomous agent that predicts customer needs and proactively makes recommendations and purchases on their behalf.

Since Amazon launched its AI shopping assistant "Rufus" in 2024 and began advertising, major retailers have been rushing to develop AI agent strategies. Walmart announced its own AI assistant "Sparky" in June 2025, entering the competition in earnest.

CEO Doug McMillon stated, "E-commerce has always been about the search bar. That's about to change," declaring a shift to conversational commerce with the OpenAI partnership announcement.

A Vision Built on Four Pillars

Walmart's agentic commerce strategy is built on four distinct pillars.

Practical Solutions

Danker emphasizes, "AI needs a purpose. Solving customer problems is very practical." The company's AI applications are already producing concrete results, including reducing fashion production lead times by up to 18 weeks and improving customer care response times by up to 40%.

Deep Personalization

"Personalization has only scratched the surface. AI will take it to a new dimension," says Danker. Walmart aims to understand not just individual purchase history, but also household composition, dietary restrictions, and local community context.

Immersive Experiences

Leveraging devices like smart glasses, the company will break away from traditional scroll-based UIs to create more human-centered interactions. "There will be a lot less time spent scrolling," Danker predicts.

Anticipatory Commerce

"Understanding customers well enough to know when they're about to run out of detergent. The AI agent delivers it before they run out" - this predictive auto-replenishment is envisioned as the ultimate form.

Two Major Partnerships: Google and OpenAI

Walmart is taking a strategy to reach customers through multiple touchpoints via partnerships with major AI platforms.

OpenAI ChatGPT Integration

The partnership with OpenAI announced in October 2025 enables direct purchases through the "Instant Checkout" feature on ChatGPT. Users can search for products while conversing and complete purchases without leaving the chat interface.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commented, "We're excited to partner with Walmart to make everyday shopping simpler."

Google Gemini Integration

On January 11, 2026, the partnership with Google was announced. Walmart and Sam's Club products will be automatically suggested within the Gemini app.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated, "Walmart is a retail innovator, and we're excited to partner on building open standards to make agentic commerce a reality." Through account linking, Walmart+ and Sam's Club membership benefits will also apply, with delivery available in as little as 30 minutes.

Evolution of AI Assistant "Sparky"

Sparky, the AI assistant within the Walmart app, is at the core of the company's agentic commerce strategy. Currently offering product search, review summarization, and comparison features, it plans to expand to image, voice, and video understanding, essential item reordering, meal planning, and service reservations.

Survey results show that 81% of Walmart customers use Sparky to check product availability and details, indicating already high penetration. The company is also testing ad displays within Sparky, which is expected to become a new revenue stream.

Impact on E-commerce Businesses and How to Leverage

Walmart's agentic commerce strategy provides important implications for the entire e-commerce industry.

First, the "search box"-centric UI is at a turning point. Adapting to conversational interfaces requires structuring product information and optimizing metadata for AI. Product descriptions will also need to shift from "search keywords" to "natural language that AI can easily understand."

Second, opportunities for exposure on multiple AI platforms are emerging. Product visibility on platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini could become new traffic acquisition channels.

Furthermore, realizing "anticipatory commerce" requires high-precision analysis of customer purchase patterns and inventory data. This is an opportune time to consider implementing subscription models and auto-replenishment services.

Summary

Walmart's agentic commerce vision aims to fundamentally transform the traditional shopping experience of "scroll and search." Through partnerships with Google and OpenAI, two major AI platforms, the company is establishing itself as a leader in conversational commerce industry standards.

On the other hand, according to Walmart's research, 46% of consumers are resistant to leaving their entire shopping to AI agents. It's clear that consumers want AI to be a "guide," with the final purchase decision made by themselves.

Going forward, attention should be paid to Sparky's feature expansion and the concrete rollout of the Gemini integration, as well as the maturation of the in-agent advertising revenue model. Whether 2026 becomes "the year of transformation from experimentation to full-scale change" remains to be seen.