There is a new sheriff in conversational commerce. Walmart has announced a partnership with OpenAI that lets customers shop via ChatGPT. After you link your Walmart account, you will be able to browse items from household goods to groceries directly in the chatbot and press a “buy” button to check out. Sam’s Club members can also plan meals, restock essentials and discover new products through the agentic shopping feature.
Walmart says the integration will allow it to predict customers’ needs and personalize recommendations, turning shopping from a reactive search into a proactive experience. The company’s move follows OpenAI’s broader “agentic shopping system,” which initially partners with Etsy and Shopify sellers. Walmart isn’t relying solely on OpenAI, either; it recently rolled out its own generative AI assistant, Sparky, to help customers discover products, compare items, and soon handle reorders and service bookings. CEO Doug McMillon frames this as the evolution of e‑commerce from a search bar and endless list of products to a “multimedia, personalized and contextual” experience.
My take:
I’m surprisingly optimistic about this. Whether you think it is convenient or invasive depends on whether you choose to use it. If the idea of an AI agent learning about your habits bothers you, don’t link your account, but for many people the payoff will outweigh the privacy trade off.
This integration could shake up online shopping. Amazon still dominates, but a helpful assistant that knows you prefer a particular brand of paper towels and can remind you to reorder them might get some people to try Walmart again. If it works well, it could reduce returns, improve customer satisfaction and even cut down on impulse buys. That’s a win for consumers and for Walmart.
The only downside I see is if “agentic” goes too far. A truly autonomous assistant might place orders without confirming with the user, leading to confusion or unwanted purchases. I hope Walmart keeps a human in the loop approach, at least a quick pause for confirmation, because people should always have the final say in whether something goes into their cart.