How Walmart, Target, and more retailers are infusing AI into their shopping experiences

Walmart introduced the world to its AI shopping assistant, Sparky, in June. Shoppers can use the chatbot in the Walmart app to find products, read reviews, and receive personalized purchase recommendations.

The retail giant rolled out additional features in the app for the holiday season, including help with party planning, a 3D showroom, and audio product descriptions and reviews.

Walmart also said in October that it and sister company Sam's Club would be partnering with OpenAI. The deal is supposed to enable customers to shop through ChatGPT using the platform's Instant Checkout feature.

Target and OpenAI unveiled in November that a custom Target app would be coming to ChatGPT, rolling out in beta later that month. With this feature, shoppers can purchase multiple items in a single transaction, shop for fresh food, and select their preferred shipping method, the companies said.

"Our goal is simple: make every interaction feel as natural, helpful, and inspiring as chatting with a friend," Prat Vemana, executive vice president and chief information and product officer at Target, said in a statement when the OpenAI partnership was announced.

Target's app also features its own AI-powered tools, including one that enables users to scan their written grocery list and have the items automatically added to their cart. The retail giant launched a holiday-themed AI shopping assistant that suggests gift ideas based on user prompts.

Amazon's AI-powered shopping assistant Rufus is growing. Rufus had over 250 million customers this year, with monthly users up 140% year-over-year, CEO Andy Jassy told analysts in October.

The AI shopping assistant has been around since 2024, offering consumers personalized product recommendations. Rufus generally appears alongside search results as a panel where users can choose from shopping-related prompts or ask their own questions to find deals on the platform.

"Our goal is to save customers time and money by making online shopping even simpler with real-time information and insights of experts," said Rajiv Mehta, vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, in a November press release.

Online marketplace eBay unveiled an AI-powered shopping agent in May that would personalize the shopping experience. The company said that the shopping agent would show up for customers throughout their shopping journey, either by reacting to a request or through in-line messaging on the page a user is visiting.

"Our AI shopping agent has given buyers a new way to shop across our inventory, with personalized product picks and expert guidance based on their individual shopping preferences," CEO Jamie Iannone said on the company's October earnings call.

He said the company built its large language models in-house to perform specific shopping agent tasks, and it's been fine-tuning them. It's "poised to gradually bring agentic capabilities into the core of eBay's business through the main search experience over the coming quarters," Iannone said.

Home Depot created an AI tool, called Blueprint Takeoffs, for professional builders, renovators, and remodelers, a core pillar of the retailer's customer base.

The tool is named after takeoffs, which are material lists and estimates that can be time-consuming for workers to make themselves.

Home Depot said the tool can handle tasks for a single-family project that should take weeks within a few days.

"The speed and accuracy of the Blueprint Takeoffs tool give Pros more time to focus on what matters most: serving their customers and growing their businesses," said Mike Rowe, executive vice president of Home Depot's pro business, when Blueprint Takeoffs was announced in November.

Lowe's introduced Mylow, an AI-powered virtual home improvement assistant made in collaboration with OpenAI, in March. The retailer said it provides the expertise of a Lowe's associate at customers' fingertips.

The assistant was designed to provide step-by-step instructions for DIY projects, offer design inspiration, and help locate specific products at Lowe's.

"Our virtual assistants, Mylow and Mylow Companion, which are built on an OpenAI platform, are answering nearly 1 million questions a month about everything from product specs to project know-how to the status of a customer order," CEO Marvin Ellison told analysts in November.

Abercrombie & Fitch is in the midst of a revival, and the company said in a November earnings call that it's investing in AI to enhance the customer journey.

It recently started using AI agents in customer service, for example.

The company is also kicking off in November a partnership with PayPal that it said will enable customers to browse the retailer's catalog and complete transactions within their AI conversations on AI answer engines like Perplexity. Abercrombie & Fitch is one of several retailers that will be integrated into the ecosystem.