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BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Walmart has introduced Wally, a Generative AI-powered assistant designed to help its merchants streamline data analysis, automate reporting, and make faster, more informed decisions. The tool is expected to significantly enhance efficiency, allowing merchants to spend less time on manual data entry and more time on strategic decision-making.
Walmart merchants are responsible for sourcing the products that appear on store shelves and in online inventories. Their work requires a combination of strategy, analytics, creativity, and relationship management. However, data reporting and analysis—which are critical to their roles—have traditionally been time-consuming and complex. Wally aims to change that by automating these processes and simplifying access to key insights.
How Wally enhances merchandising
Built on Walmart’s proprietary data, Wally leverages Generative AI to handle a wide range of tasks, including:
- Data analysis and reporting – Instantly generating insights from complex sales and performance datasets.
- Root cause identification – Diagnosing why certain products are underperforming or overperforming.
- Operational support – Answering merchants’ questions and raising tickets for unresolved issues.
- Advanced calculations – Automating complex formulas and predicting sales trends.
The AI-powered tool is designed to be intuitive and requires no technical expertise. Merchants can simply ask questions in plain language and receive real-time, actionable insights without the need for extensive training.
The innovation behind Wally
Developing an AI assistant tailored to Walmart’s merchandising business was no simple task. Unlike traditional AI models trained on broadly available datasets, Walmart needed a solution that could interpret proprietary retail data with precision. To achieve this, the company built a semantic layer, allowing Wally to process and analyze large volumes of product information with speed and accuracy.
The response from Walmart merchants has been overwhelmingly positive, and the company sees this as just the beginning. Future updates will further enhance Wally’s capabilities, eventually enabling it to take autonomous actions within pre-set guidelines—helping merchants execute tactical strategies more efficiently.
