Hurray! No more thinking when we have to buy the groceries! The retail sector is facing one of the biggest structural changes in its history; it´s directing all its forces and resources to the implementation of AI in the different stages of the purchasing process!
This is the case of Walmart, which already has an alliance with OpenAi, through which it is automating purchasing processes. It aims to improve the user experience through suggestions, time savings and offering customized products, among others. For this, it has launched Wally, a virtual assistant and the Trend-to-Product project, through which markets and trends are analyzed, offering the most popular product to the customer even before they have realized their needs. Walmart takes a step forward.After the criticism of President Trump, the boycotts by customers and their discontent with the rise in prices due to tariffs, Walmart has bet strongly to incorporate AI, not only in the purchasing process, but also in its advertising and marketing strategies!
Who´s Wally?
Companies are no longer satisfied with the use of algorithms to improve their processes. In the case of Walmart, the company is developing intelligent agents that will not only offer you personalized products, but will be who seeks, compare, decide the even buy by the consumer. Walmart currently has Wally; a virtual assistant software powered by generative AI. This assistant is able to anticipate (or create) the user’s future needs, identify consumption patterns to optimize their supply and reduce supply chain times. Wally’s benefits are bi-directional; both for the consumer and for the company.
Creating needs; Trend-to-Product
A software that analyzes the new trends in markets and social networks in real time and is able to translate it to a product or several of the stock, advertising it above the others, seems like science fiction, right? Well, this is exactly what the artificial intelligence of the Tren-to-Product, another bet from Walmart, does. Before the consumer even realizes that a product has become a trend, this software detects, analyzes and advertises it to reach the user, creating a need. This is how Walmart not only aims to be ahead of its competitors, but also of the customer’s own real needs.
UX and AI
The use of artificial intelligence softwares in companies sought to improve internal processes, reducing costs, waiting times and automating repetitive processes. However, Walmart aims to keep it up, improving the user experience (UX) with the use of AI as well. It has personalized the offer, compared prices, availability and quality, schedule purchases and deliveries and receive alerts on trendy products. It is not only about customer satisfaction, but loyalty and engagement.
Walmart and OpenAI
If being honest, all the improvements proposed by Walmart would not have been possible without the collaboration of OpenAI and the merger they have carried out. Thanks to Chat GPT, the assistant’s dialogs are more real, fast and efficient (nobody likes to talk to a machine). The idea is that the client feels like talking to a qualified (in this case virtual) employee. Another valuable source of information for companies is user ratings and comments. Aspects such as the experience in physical store and online or marketing strategies are based on the percentage of consumers who review reviews before buying.
Will the human factor disappear from the retail world?
It is undeniable that there is a growing demand for process automation, which reduces costs for companies. However, it would be impossible to completely disregard the human factor, since there are aspects such as creativity or the ability to make more strategic decisions that AI is not prepared to carry out.
