Here’s how Walmart and Amazon will use AI to dominate the marketplace

Walmart and Amazon look set to lead the retail industry into a new frontier of artificial intelligence, doubling down on investments in the technology.

AI is rapidly becoming a significant part of day-to-day life with an ever-growing list of applications for the burgeoning technology. In the retail sector, investing in AI brings the possibility to boost efficiency and fuel business growth.

One of President Donald Trump’s first priorities upon his return to the White House was to signal major action on AI, signing an executive order aimed at “strengthening American leadership in artificial intelligence.”

What are Walmart and Amazon doing with AI?

A report from CIO Drive has outlined some of the areas that Walmart is focusing on with the latest investments. Walmart will expand the use of an AI-powered coding assistant following positive impact in 2024.

Last year, the tools helped Walmart to cut down on developer time by about four million hours, speeding up code delivery and reducing bugs in the process.

Walmart is also increasing use of AI for customer service purposes. A version of the company’s internal My Assistant programme could be used to deal with customer feedback and, they hope, improve the experience.

As for Amazon, the retail giant is planning to invest more than $100 billion in 2025, much of which will be AI-related. There has been some concern that these AI streamlining efforts may ultimately lead to one place, cuts to staffing levels. However Amazon’s retail chief Doug Herrington insisted that this will not be the case, arguing that AI’s true potential is in terms of innovation, not simply cost-cutting.

“My suggestion would be for all the teams that if you find yourself only doing cost reduction with no invention and innovation, or if you find yourself only working on innovation and not thinking at all about how to become more efficient, then you probably don’t have the right balance,” Herrington said, according to Business Insider.

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