Walmart puts 'Sparky' next-generation AI assistant into wide release
Walmart Inc. is expanding its generative and agentic artificial intelligence capabilities to offer a new feature on its shopping app.
The discount giant is now offering a smiling "Ask Sparky" button in its mobile app which customers can use across all product categories to find items and synthesize reviews. Customers can also conduct natural-language searches to determine information such as what sports teams are playing that night the weather at the beach they’re heading to and get a custom outfit recommendation.
Sparky currently uses generative AI, which is based on machine learning and can create new content and ideas and create recommendations based on analysis of volumes of data in near-real-time that were previously too big to evaluate, to help customers understand specific product features, compare items and make informed selections.
Soon, Walmart plans to leverage agentic AI, which goes a step beyond generative AI by analyzing massive amounts of data in near-real-time and automatically taking action based on the results, to provide more functionality from Sparky.
[READ MORE: Walmart pursues enterprise agentic AI strategy]
This will include enabling customers to customize their shopping experience with features such as automatically reordering household essentials and booking services that simplify complex shopping tasks. Walmart intends for Sparky to become multi-modal — able to understand text, images, audio and video.
Ultimately, Walmart intends for Sparky to solve everyday problems, such as answering the question "What's for dinner?" by providing a week of family-approved meal plans with ingredients automatically added to the shopper’s cart.
Similarly, "How do I fix this leaky faucet?" could turn into step-by-step guidance with the right tools ordered for same-day delivery, or "I need party ideas" could generate an event planning session including theme, decorations, food and gifts, all personalized and coordinated within budget.
Sparky joins Walmart’s suite of AI-powered shopping capabilities, which currently includes search within the navigation bar, as well as summaries of product reviews, product descriptions and product comparisons.
"Sparky is more than a feature — it’s a foundation for what’s next," Desiree Gosby, senior VP, tech strategy and emerging tech, Walmart, said in a corporate blog post. "Fueling Walmart's trajectory into the future of shopping, Sparky isn’t just revolutionizing retail; it's paving the way for a new and improved customer experience. And this is just the beginning."
Based in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart operates 10,750 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries.
