On Thursday, Walmart revealed plans to roll out AI-powered “super agents.” It is expected that these agents will dramatically improve the shopping experience for customers, as well as streamline operations in multiple ways.
The four agents, powered by AI, will soon be the main way customers shop with Walmart, said the world’s largest retailer. The four key user groups who will use these agents are: shoppers, store employees, suppliers and sellers and software developers.
The move comes as Walmart intensifies its ambitious goal of having sales account for 50 percent of its total revenue within just five years.
Simplifying their AI framework
The new framework cantered around the agents will replace a multitude of AI agents and tools, providing a single, intuitive interface for each user group. "It became very clear that we could dramatically simplify," said Suresh Kumar, Walmart's chief technology officer.
Walmart’s customers are currently using the generative AI tool called "Sparky," which is already evolving into a "super agent." At the moment, Sparky can summarize, review and offer product recommendations. However, the new Sparky will soon be able to handle much more complex and multi-step tasks.
For CX practitioners, the value of agentic tools has not gone unnoticed. Following the recent arrival of agentic AI and copilots, the top trend in CX Network’s recently released Global State of CX 2025 report emerged as AI-powered technologies for operations, selected by 35 percent of respondents and up from second place in 2024.
An "Associate" super agent
Customers will not be the only ones who benefit from this new tool; Walmart is also developing an "Associate" super agent which will streamline cumbersome tasks for its workforce. For example, this agent will help employees to submit a parental leave application, or give a store manager real-time sales data with minimal input. The value of improving the employee experience to achieve greater customer satisfaction is clear, as Walmart aims to free up its .5 million associates to focus on tasks that demand creativity, problem-solving and emotional intelligence.
Sellers, suppliers and advertisers will also benefit from the third agent, "Marty." Processes like onboarding and order management will be streamlined and the agent will even be able to create ad campaigns.
Finally, a "Developer" super agent will provide a unified platform for building and testing all future AI tools, ensuring consistency and accelerating innovation across the company.
The future of AI “super agents”
Walmart has already seen tangible results from its AI efforts, with a recent report noting that AI has cut customer support resolution times by up to 40 percent and reduced the time for shift planning by team leads from 90 to 30 minutes. "Agents can help automate and simplify pretty much everything that we do," says Kumar.
Notably, Walmart has not made any links to the new agents to any job cuts, with David Glick, SVP of enterprise business solutions at Walmart, even suggesting that AI would create new roles. However, Walmart has been reducing the amount of corporate staff they employ and is quickly modernizing e-commerce fulfilment centers.
While Walmart’s new tools present an exciting development for CX practitioners, companies must be strategic and thoughtful about applying AI rather than jumping on the bandwagon, advises Ashley Garst, senior content manager, Knowledge at Coveo.