Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) already made a big success after it eased concerns over being smashed by Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN).
Then it kicked off 2024 by showing its AI-powered-search engine contribution to the grocery shopping revolution with which it entered the long-dominated territory of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
Retail-centered generative AI search engine is giving Google a run for its money
Walmart bravely entered the field that Google has dominated since the very beginning.
Although Google is not threatened directly as its search engine is used far beyond retail, Walmart's success still could inflict harm on the world's most widely used search engine. Instead of sending users to Google and other online destinations, Walmart has been using generative AI as of January to help users arrange an event, taking into account location, search history, and other contextual information. During the unveiling preview in January, Walmart also hinted at developing a generative AI-powered search feature where users would be able to ask for a themed party and receive all the relevant items as a result.
What also helped Walmart is that Alphabet and Google released Gemini generative AI before it was ready at the same time. But despite acknowledging the mistake, Alphabet continues to commit significant funds and efforts to further develop Gemini along with more specialized AI tools to integrate within retail ecosystems, such as Conversational Commerce tools from Google Cloud that allows businesses to use virtual AI-powered customers service agents.
But the bottom line is taht Walmart is only doing what everyone else is, led by titans such as Amazon. For example, Amazon users can converse with an AI shopping assistant about what they need instead of searching for specific products. It just pulled it off quickly and is using the technology wisely.
Automatic replenishment feature
Moreover, Walmart is envisioning a future where grocery shopping is done hands-free, such as a fully stocked fridge that magically replenishes itself. AI-powered InHome replenishment service aims to automate the entire grocery shopping process, based on the combination of individual consumer habits and Walmart's extensive knowledge of general shopping patterns. If successful, Walmart will be surpassing Amazon and its Subscribe-and-Save model as Amazon is yet to utilize AI for this purpose.
Walmart took its place in the gen-AI era in the making
What should worry Google and Amazon is the speed at which Walmart employed generative AI to enhance its offerings, breaking the pattern of everyone going to Google for everything. Generative AI is democratizing opportunities that used to be unavailable and Walmart has successfully positioned itself as an innovator, worthy of being next to the titans themselves such as Google and Amazon.
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