Walmart’s “AI-first” strategy advances with its OpenAI partnership, introducing a new way for customers to purchase products through AI-powered conversations.

Walmart’s ChatGPT partnership is smart. It shows that the company understands where commerce is heading: away from search bars and toward natural language. It gives Walmart a foothold inside a rapidly growing AI ecosystem that has the potential to change the way people shop.

In the race to capture the market of AI-driven online commerce, Walmart and its AI shopping chatbot Sparky are playing catch-up somewhat behind rival Amazon and its Rufus shopping assistant. Rufus was unveiled in February 2024, while Walmart’s Sparky debuted in June.

Walmart shoppers will be able to build carts, check out instantly, and receive proactive recommendations inside ChatGPT.

But customers and workers are still leery.” But just 10 months later, Walmart apparently believes things have changed already. Yesterday, Walmart announced that it’s partnering with OpenAI so that customers can buy things directly from Walmart through ChatGPT.