Finance Associated Press, January 10 (edited by Liu Rui).On Tuesday, Walmart, the world's largest retailer, unveiled its latest AI-powered products at CES 2024 in Las Vegas: the company unveiled a generative AI tool that allows shoppers to search for products by specific use cases, rather than just looking for one product at a time.
Walmart launched an AI assistant for online shopping
With this generative AI-powered search technology, shoppers can search for a range of products and items in related categories based on a specific topic or idea. For example, a user can request some shopping help for a soccer party, and may get suggestions for chips, chicken wings, drinks, and a widescreen TV.
Walmart released a beta version of the tool in November last year, and now the technology is available on the Walmart app on Apple's iOS mobile operating system. The tool is built using a range of large language models, including Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service.
Walmart has also launched a home** system that leverages artificial intelligence technology and Walmart's decades of expertise** to ensure that customers' online shopping carts are filled with the right items at the right time, making shopping easier.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and other executives gave a keynote address on the technology, which was also attended by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
This tool will boost Walmart's online shopping business. Walmart has always placed a high priority on online business development, and its online business has consistently performed better than other large retailers. The company has been investing in warehouse automation for the last year and has made improvements to its ** and applications.
Online business is also Walmart's main growth engine. Consumer spending has become more cautious against the backdrop of high interest rates and declining household savings in the United States last year, but Walmart's overall sales are still rising.
Walmart also announced other technological innovations
Walmart also announced that it will roll out its generative AI tools to its employees globally. In August last year, Walmart launched My Assistant, an artificial intelligence tool that can help Walmart employees generate document drafts and summarize large documents. Walmart announced that it will roll out the tool in 11 countries in the future, and make it available in local languages for those markets.
In addition to artificial intelligence and software, Walmart is expanding its technology footprint in the real world. The company is expanding drone delivery to 1.8 million homes in Dallas-Fort Worth in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.
In contrast, when Walmart first launched its drone delivery service in August last year, it only covered 60,000 households.
Walmart's premium membership store, Sam's Club (SAM'S Club) also recently demonstrated an artificial intelligence and computer vision technology. The technology scans shoppers' carts as they leave the store and compares the contents of the cart to transaction receipts, eliminating the need for manual checks at the door.
Finance Associated Press Liu Rui).