After launching a generative AI tool for corporate employees in August, Walmart is bringing the technology to its customers. During a demo with TechCrunch, an organization spokesperson outlined how the retail giant is experimenting with generative AI to assist shoppers in all stages of the shopping experience, from the search and discovery phase to creating a purchase order. Three features coming down the pipeline include a shopping assistant, generative AI-powered search and an interior design feature.

Walmart declined to share which AI models it’s using to develop these features but says it’s using quite a lot of different external models they usually may change over time.

“Another firms are essentially locking themselves into working with , Anthropic or OpenAI,” the spokesperson told us. “We wish our tools to be flexible, knowing that some are going to be higher than others over time, and we wish to have that flexibility to place out and in different models.”

Image Credits: Walmart

The brand new shopping assistant – which is launching in the approaching weeks — will allow customers to have a more interactive and conversational experience as it may possibly answer specific questions, provide personalized product suggestions and share detailed details about a certain product. As an example, it may possibly give shoppers Halloween costume ideas to wear to a horror-themed party or which mobile phone a parent should purchase for his or her child.

Similarly, users will soon give you the chance to enter specific questions directly within the search bar. With the usage of generative AI, Walmart’s search tool can understand context and generate a group of things relevant to 1 query. For instance, if a customer desires to plan for a unicorn-themed birthday, the AI displays a wide selection of products comparable to balloons, paper napkins, streamers and so forth. As an alternative of getting to type in quite a few separate searches, Walmart’s recent AI search tool is designed to save lots of customers time.

We also see this being done by other firms like Instacart, which recently rolled out a ChatGPT-powered search tool that may generate suggestions like a number of high-protein foods or Thanksgiving dinner ideas. Plus, Meta announced a recent Bing-backed AI Assistant last month in addition to an AI personality chatbot, amongst other tools.

Image Credits: Walmart

Walmart can also be developing an interior design assistant for purchasers to brighten their rooms. Along with generative AI, the feature also leverages AR technology; users must upload a photograph of a room and it’s going to then take a picture capture of each item that’s within the space. Customers ask the chat assistant for advice on how they need to redecorate, and the AI places items within the room that they suggest. Users can express their opinions on which items they wish to keep or buy. The AI also asks for a budget so it may possibly find items which are inexpensive.

The continued investment in generative AI tools is a standard theme today as more firms rush to integrate the technology into their services and products.

“Generative AI technology is a priority for the corporate,” said the Walmart spokesperson.

The brand new tools come on the heels of Walmart rolling out its AI app, “My Assistant,” to 50,000 corporate employees within the U.S. to streamline tasks like summarizing documents, helping prep for meetings and speeding up projects. Walmart has been getting “great feedback” in regards to the app and even found some employees using the assistant to draft “funny out-of-office messages,” the spokesperson added.