Walmart Introduces GenAI-Powered Assistant to Support Merchants

Walmart has unveiled Wally, a generative AI-powered assistant developed to enhance the productivity of its merchants by automating key merchandising tasks. The company announced the tool on March 18, describing it as a “productivity multiplier” designed to streamline data analysis, operational support, and reporting processes for Walmart’s sourcing teams.

According to the company, Wally was built using Walmart’s proprietary data and is aimed at eliminating the manual effort traditionally required for core merchandising functions. Tasks such as data entry and analysis, root cause identification for product performance, advanced calculations, and how-to support are now handled by the AI assistant.

The company illustrated the utility of Wally with a scenario: a bread merchant looking to track trends in protein-based food demand might previously need to analyze a variety of performance data across channels, regions, and brands. The process required running multiple reports and manually extracting insights. Wally simplifies that by delivering answers in seconds through natural language queries.

“Merchants can simply ask questions and receive actionable insights in seconds,” Walmart stated. The tool’s intuitive interface eliminates the need for technical training, allowing users to quickly extract and act on data insights.

Wally is underpinned by a semantic layer built specifically to navigate the unique structure of Walmart’s proprietary data. This allows the AI assistant to process large volumes of product information efficiently using advanced algorithms and Walmart’s own computational infrastructure.

Walmart emphasized that developing an AI assistant for its merchandising operations was a complex endeavor due to the specialized nature of the data involved. Traditional AI models, typically trained on publicly available information, were not suited to meet Walmart’s specific needs.

“We built a semantic layer, enabling Wally to understand the intricacies of our proprietary data,” the company noted.

Merchants have reportedly responded positively to Wally’s rollout, and Walmart plans to continue evolving the assistant. Future updates are expected to include autonomous functionality within configurable guardrails, enabling Wally to carry out tactical actions based on merchant strategies.

By automating time-consuming tasks and providing real-time insights, Walmart aims to free its merchants to focus on strategic initiatives and creative decision-making. The company believes this will ultimately improve customer satisfaction by delivering the right products at the right time with greater efficiency.

Image: Walmart

This article, "Walmart Introduces GenAI-Powered Assistant to Support Merchants" was first published on Small Business Trends

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