Through a new collaboration, customers will be able to purchase products from Walmart using ChatGPT and Instant Checkout from OpenAI.
Following the big-box retailer’s announcement of a collaboration that would soon enable customers to purchase things at the store using OpenAI’s artificial-intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, Walmart Inc. was the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s top percentage gainer on Tuesday and closed at a new high.
Walmart’s (WMT) stock ended Tuesday’s trading session up 4.9%.
Through ChatGPT and Instant Checkout, a purchasing service that OpenAI launched late last month, customers and members will be able to purchase goods sold at Walmart thanks to the relationship between the retail giant and OpenAI.
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who stated last month that it was “very clear that AI is going to change literally every job,” said in a statement that the move was part of a larger trend in online purchasing.
“For many years now, e-commerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses,” he stated. “That will soon change. Multimedia, contextual, and tailored native AI experiences are on the horizon.
In e-commerce, AI assistants and other applications of the technology have grown in popularity. More than one-third of 5,000 American consumers surveyed by Adobe recently reported using an AI tool to assist them with their online purchasing.
Walmart made the move as retailers deal with the U.S.-led trade war and consumers continue to struggle with rising prices, turning more and more to mass retailers for relief. Concerns have also been raised over consumers’ willingness to pay for AI and its exorbitant development expenses.
AI is already being used by Walmart in areas like apparel design and customer service. In a note on Tuesday, UBS analyst Michael Lasser said Walmart’s statement demonstrated the retailer’s ability to stay up to date with shopping and technological trends.
“Thus, this should provide incrementality and differentiation vs. the rest of retail,” he stated.
In a letter on Tuesday, Michael Baker of D.A. Davidson expressed optimism over the move as well.
He remarked, “This supports our view that Walmart will be a winner among traditional retailers in the agentic commerce race,” alluding to the artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” that are used to assist humans in their work.
The development “positions Walmart at the forefront of AI-driven retail,” according to Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe, and will facilitate shopping while increasing the chain’s sales and profits.
U.S. ChatGPT users will be able to make in-chat purchases from domestic Etsy Inc. (ETSY) merchants when OpenAI launched Instant Checkout last month. Shopify Inc. (SHOP) retailers’ products will be made available later. It stated at the time that customers could use Instant Checkout to buy a single item, with multi-item purchases to come.
