Walmart builds AI shopping agents to automate everything from groceries to curating themed baskets

Walmart is preparing for a future where autonomous AI shopping agents, not human browsers, select and buy goods. Hari Vasudev, the retailer’s U.S. chief technology officer, expects a fundamental shift in online commerce once agents such as OpenAI’s Operator can handle everything from search to checkout without a person ever visiting a product page.

To stay relevant, Walmart is building its own in-app and web-based agents that will reorder groceries automatically or assemble a basket for tasks as specific as organizing a unicorn-themed birthday party. These tools lean on first-party data, preserving a direct link to the customer even when the transaction becomes largely invisible.

The company is also bracing for shoppers who delegate purchases to third-party bots. Vasudev anticipates an industry protocol that lets outside agents talk to Walmart’s systems, exchange preference data, and fetch structured product details. In cases where bots crawl sites independently, like a person wandering aisles without assistance, Walmart’s product pages must still be machine-readable and competitively priced.

Algorithmic buying upends familiar levers such as imagery to evoke desire; a bot cares more about specifications, availability, and total cost. According to Gartner analyst Robert Hetu, retailers may have to update descriptions in near real-time, trigger instant discounts, and accept that search-engine rank—paid or organic—will heavily influence which offers a bot sees first.

For now, more than 80 percent of sales still happen in physical stores, and autonomous purchasing remains nascent. Yet Walmart’s 22 percent year-over-year e-commerce growth underscores how quickly digital habits can shift.