Walmart, as the world's largest retailer, is known for its willingness to embrace new technologies and adapt to change. The company's commitment to innovation can teach valuable lessons to other organizations, especially in the area of generative AI. Walmart has successfully integrated generative AI into various aspects of its business to enhance performance and improve customer service. Let's explore some of the ways in which Walmart utilizes generative AI. Recognizing that many grocery shopping trips involve purchasing the same items regularly, Walmart has introduced voice shopping as a convenient solution for customers to reorder common products. Through the Walmart Voice Order service, customers can connect their mobile devices and home smart speakers to their Walmart account and simply speak out what they want to order. For instance, by saying "Hey Google, please add a dozen eggs to my cart, " the system will understand the request, identify the customer's preferred brand based on previous purchases, and add the item accordingly. Additionally, Walmart offers a Text to Shop feature that allows customers to request items by texting Walmart. Powered by conversational AI technology, this text chat enables customers to search for products, add or remove items from their cart, reorder products, and schedule a delivery or pickup. Moreover, Walmart is introducing a new online AI shopping assistant designed to assist shoppers in finding the best products for their specific needs or planning special events. Whether it's organizing a superhero-themed party for a six-year-old or selecting a Halloween costume for a teenager, the tool recommends relevant and related products without the need for multiple individual searches. Generative AI voice assistants are not limited to customer benefits alone. Walmart has implemented an AI helper called Ask Sam for in-store associates.

This conversational AI can assist colleagues with various queries, such as locating a specific product in the store, checking prices, or answering questions about their work schedules. The convenience of this AI tool is that it can respond to inquiries with simple questions like "What aisle is cinnamon located in?" While customer service chatbots have been around for some time, generative AI takes their capabilities to a new level by enabling them to interpret and respond to requests in a more intelligent and human-like manner. Walmart, among other companies, turned to generative AI to automate specific customer support requests. Since 2020, Walmart claims that this technology has reduced millions of customer contacts by providing immediate answers to questions regarding returns, order status, and more. This real-time conversational functionality is available across multiple countries, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and India. Determining the best application of a new technology like generative AI can be challenging for business leaders. To overcome this, Walmart has taken a unique approach by opening up its generative AI tool, My Assistant, to corporate facility employees. The aim is to alleviate employees from monotonous and repetitive tasks, allowing them to dedicate more time to enhancing the customer experience. Walmart expects employees to generate their own creative ways of utilizing the tool in their daily work. This approach of crowdsourcing ideas from employees fosters creativity and enables greater engagement with new technology. It's truly inspiring to see how Walmart integrates transformative technology throughout its entire business. This is a valuable lesson for all organizations to learn from.