Walmart has announced an ambitious expansion of its artificial intelligence and drone initiatives to enhance the shopping experience for its customers.
During a keynote at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Tuesday, the retail giant revealed plans to extend its drone delivery service to an additional 1.8 million households in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This expansion builds on Walmart’s existing drone operations, which have already completed 20,000 deliveries across seven states. According to company leaders, this scale of drone deployment in a major metropolitan area is unprecedented among competitors.
In the realm of AI, Walmart introduced a new generative AI search feature for iOS users, designed to suggest products tailored to specific occasions, such as football parties or bridal showers.
The company also showcased “InHome Replenishment,” a new service leveraging AI to track and restock customers’ favorite grocery items. Additionally, Walmart is testing a beta platform that enables customers to virtually assemble outfits and seek feedback from friends.
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Sam’s Club, a subsidiary of Walmart, is innovating the checkout process. The retailer is experimenting with different checkout methods, including “scan and go” technology, self-checkout, and traditional staffed registers. A novel camera system at the exit points of some stores now captures images of the contents of shoppers’ carts to verify purchases. This technology has been implemented in 10 Sam’s Club locations, with plans for wider deployment later in the year, as stated by Sam’s Club CEO Chris Nicholas.
