Dive Brief:
- Walmart is using generative AI to improve the data quality of its product catalog in pursuit of CX benefits for its customers and associates, executives said on a Q2 2025 earnings call Thursday.
- Cleaner data can help associates find specific products by quickly accessing images of packaging. Customers using Walmart’s AI assistant will soon receive follow-up answers to their queries that will help them find the right item, according to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.
- “We're finding tangible ways to leverage generative AI to improve the customer, member and associate experience,” McMillon said during the call.
Dive Insight:
Walmart executives entered this year wanting to turn their AI aspirations from 2023 into a reality. Now, better data crunching capabilities are improving behind-the-scenes operations and end-user experiences.
“The quality of the data in our catalog affects nearly everything we do, from helping customers find and buy what they're looking for, to how we store inventory in the network, to delivering orders,” John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., said during the call.
Walmart used large language models to create or improve more than 850 million pieces of data across its product catalog. Without generative AI, the process would have required 100 times the head count to complete in the same amount of time, executives said.
The primary in-store improvement is that associates’ can use in-store technology like mobile tools to quickly locate inventory and get items on shelves or to waiting customers — a significant upgrade from the “treasure hunt” of finding items in years past, according to Furner.
The company also bolstered internal generative AI adoption in January, when it rolled out a proprietary generative AI tool to an additional 25,000 employees raising the total access count to 75,000 workers.
