Walmart Announces Partnership with OpenAI for Online Shopping Feature

What Happened?

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced a new partnership with OpenAI designed to allow shoppers to make purchases from Walmart through ChatGPT. Mr. McMillon also issued a press release saying, ‘For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change.’

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, also issued a statement saying, ‘We’re excited to partner with Walmart to make everyday purchases a little simpler.’ An exact date for the new service was not provided, but Walmart did say they expected the feature to become available later in the fall of 2025.

Why it Matters

Retailers are competing on two main fronts for sales. The first is what consumers buy, and the second is how they buy it. The partnership between Walmart and OpenAI fits squarely into the second category, and it is likely intended as a direct challenge by Walmart to Amazon and other online retailers. The move could position Walmart to grab a larger share of the e-commerce market in the coming years.

The announcement said that Walmart items including clothing, entertainment and food from third-party sellers will be available for purchase through the new feature. Walmart also said it would make use of OpenAI’s recently announced ‘Instant Checkout’ tool, which lets users buy items directly through ChatGPT.

Once activated, the new service would allow users of ChatGPT to shop directly from Walmart through their ChatGPT interface. That means they will have the ability to shop without even using Google or other search engines, which could further decrease web traffic going to conventional search engines. Another major change is the nature of the AI itself.

Agentic AI programs like ChatGPT are moving from passive to active and even pro-active, which means they can provide a more personalized experience for users. Some AI programs can even anticipate users' shopping needs based on previous purchase patterns, making it theoretically possible for the AI to do users' shopping for them. 

AI is having an impact across the entire retail spectrum of operations. Included in the statement about the partnership with OpenAI, Walmart added that they leverage AI across every part of the business. From enhancing the product catalog to reducing fashion production timelines by up to 18 weeks, to ensuring a more seamless shopping journey, and cutting customer care resolution times by up to 40%. The company is applying AI so every shopping experience is more convenient and more rewarding.

How it Affects You

E-commerce has been increasing steadily for the past decade, accelerated by the 2020 pandemic and now again by AI. The use of AI programs like ChatGPT for shopping offers consumers a new way to make online purchases, and if they flock to the new approach in large numbers, the way e-commerce is done could be fundamentally transformed.