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Big box retailer Walmart is using artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers and personal shoppers and better manage the ever-growing online demand for groceries amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a blog post Thursday, Srini Venkatesan, Walmart’s global executive vice president of technology, noted that as Americans increasingly turned to the internet to purchase essentials, stores like Walmart were faced with a “unique challenge”.
The alternative buying method combined with the volume of in-store shoppers - especially during the months of March and April - resulted in the rapid sale of popular items.
Last July, Walmart Corporate Affairs said the company hired more than 400,000 new associates to ease the sudden “customer rush for the essentials as lockdowns spread across the United States.”
“Walmart’s solution was to use artificial intelligence to help customers and personal buyers choose the best substitute for an out-of-stock item,” Venkatesan said.
An illustrated video included in the blog post shows a Walmart personal shopper having to make a substitution for an online order.
Deciding which is closest to the item they initially selected is a complex and “very personal” process, Venkatesan said, with nearly 100 different factors making the decision.
In addition, he said that the wrong choices can negatively impact customer satisfaction and increase costs, and manual processes are difficult and time consuming.
The “tech solution” to this problem uses “deep learning AI” to examine the hundreds of variables in real time, including size, type, brand, price, aggregate buyer data, preferences individual customers and current inventory.
Shoppers line up to pay for their purchases at a Los Angeles Walmart store on November 24, 2009, days before Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which kicks off the holiday shopping season. (ROBYN BECK / AFP via Getty Images)
The next step is to seek customer approval for the substituted item, which Venkatesan says is an “important signal” fed back into the learning algorithms to improve the accuracy of future recommendations.
Additionally, the use of AI aims to make it easier for Walmart associates to work, and the technology shows where every item is located in the store to reduce the time spent on an order.
Venkatesan said that as Walmart updates and improves AI, customers respond positively and the system “learns and becomes smarter” based on the data.
“Our goal is to never run out of stock and never have substitutions. But, when that happens, the technology we’ve built helps ensure that customers get the next best thing, ”he concluded.
About 220 million customers and members visit about 10,500 stores and clubs in 24 countries and e-commerce sites, according to the Walmart website.
In March, its corporate headquarters announced it would drop the $ 35 minimum order requirement for express delivery.
In a statement detailing the move, the company said it has 170,000 trained personal shoppers in its arsenal and express delivery is currently offered in nearly 3,000 stores, reaching nearly 70% of the US population.
Earlier this month, Walmart Global Tech unveiled the app [email protected] for its store associates in the United States and announced that it will distribute a new Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro smartphone, case and protection plan to more than 740,000 associates.
Amazon Inc. - a top competitor - is said to be on Walmart’s heels, and JPMorgan analysts predicted the Jeff Bezos-founded e-commerce giant “to overtake” Walmart as the largest US retailer by the year next.
Quotes delayed by at least 15 minutes. Real-time quotes provided by BATS BZX Real-time prices. Market data provided by Interactive Data (Conditions &). Powered and implemented by Interactive Data Managed Solutions. Fundamental company data provided by Morningstar. Profit estimate data provided by Zacks. Mutual fund and ETF data provided by Lipper. Economic data provided by Econoday. Dow Jones Company Terms & Conditions &.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. © 2021 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. FAQ - Updated privacy policy
