Walmart has been testing artificial intelligence technology for several years. At the ICR Conference this week, Daniel Danker, the company's executive vice president of AI acceleration, described 2026 as a pivotal year. "This is the year where tinkering becomes transformation," Danker stated. "This is the year where we've built a level of mastery around that, and we'll start building things that deeply address customer problems."
The retailer is working on smarter product recommendations, automatic replenishment of household items, and direct purchases through chatbots. Danker explained that while machine learning systems have existed for years, AI represents an advancement. He gave an example of turkey recommendations: a machine learning system might suggest turkeys after Thanksgiving based on past purchases, but an AI system could recommend them before the holiday by understanding why people buy them.
Another example involved household items. Danker said a machine learning system could send laundry detergent based on previous purchases, but an AI system could consider additional data like household size inferred from milk purchases to determine the right time to remind customers or process automatic purchases. "We're on a journey toward it. We're not quite there yet, but we're moving fast," he noted, adding that such use cases aren't yet ready for prime time.
Walmart has partnered with OpenAI to create shopping experiences within ChatGPT, enabling instant checkout so customers can shop without leaving the chatbot. In January, the company announced a deeper partnership with Alphabet's Google, where Google's Gemini will automatically include Walmart and Sam's Club products in relevant responses. Items added from Gemini can be combined with existing shopping carts.
Danker provided an example during the conference: if someone spills red wine on their carpet and asks ChatGPT or Gemini for stain removal advice, the chatbots could recommend products from Walmart's website and offer low-friction purchase options. While commerce in AI chatbots remains in its infancy, with hundreds of millions of users monthly, these integrations could impact Walmart's revenue.
Walmart's early and aggressive adoption of AI could give the retailer a competitive advantage. The company views 2026 as the year when AI will become truly useful for its customers.