The chatbot is also intentionally flexible with new integrations in mind. “The look and feel can be changed slightly to make it feel like a natural part of other environments,” says Danker.
shopping shift
The new Walmart experience is part of a broader pivot to OpenAI to focus on checkout within embedded apps, as reported earlier this month without providing any rationale for the change. Danker spoke about the change at a Morgan Stanley investor conference this month but did not cite the data behind it.
OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson says the company wants to focus on improvements to help users research products, while giving merchants more control at checkout. “We appreciate our partners for learning with us,” he said.
Danker says Walmart took some products out of Instant Checkout because it knew “the single-item checkout experience is harmful in some cases”. For example, when someone buys a TV, he needs to buy accessories like HDMI cables. Danker says Walmart may be nudging shoppers on its website to purchase the bundle to avoid a frustrating installation experience. Through Sparky, Walmart will be able to replicate this in chatbots.
Retailers were eager to collaborate on Instant Checkout because the only option to serve ChatGPT users at the time was to link to their websites. Walmart believes the Sparky experience will feel even “more intuitive”, as users will be able to continue to chat and refine their orders without having to re-enter their payment and delivery information previously saved with Walmart.
Sparky has been criticized by people who work for Walmart on Reddit, and testimonials for the chatbot are difficult to find on social media. But according to the company, half of Walmart app users are engaged with it. While people typically use the app to search for staple foods like milk and bananas, they also ask Sparky about exotic items or for solutions to more complex problems. Walmart US CEO David Gugina recently said that Sparky users spend about 35 percent more per order than other shoppers.
Danker acknowledges that Sparky is slow and often produces such weak responses that some consumers may dismiss it as unreliable. Danker says this year’s priorities are to train Sparky to be more active, give him more insight into individual shoppers and make him helpful in multiple departments at Walmart, such as the pharmacy.
While Walmart is pushing Sparky elsewhere, it has not and does not plan to block other AI agents from making purchases on its website. Amazon, on the other hand, recently won a temporary court order blocking Perplexity’s automated technology from making purchases as if it were a human. Danker says Walmart wants to support any device customers use, as long as it’s a good experience. For example, there should not be incorrect orders, surprise bills or excessive need for customer service.
“We don’t want to be prescriptive about the exact journey that every customer is going to take,” he says. “We don’t want to hold things up on speculation or hypothetical concern.”
When it comes to how much consumers will trust AI in their shopping, Danker is willing to speculate. “The idea that this will all be automated might be a little far-fetched,” he says. “People are excited about shopping for clothes for their home, for their kids.” Walmart wants to leave users in control with Sparky in yet more locations.
This is a version of Will Knight’s AI Lab Newsletter. Read previous newsletters Here.
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