Latest news with #Walmart-specific
USA Today
6 days ago
- Business
- USA Today
Walmart unveils new AI tools for workers. Here's what they'll do.
Walmart on Tuesday, June 24 announced it is rolling out a suite of artificial intelligence tools for its store associates, including a real-time translation feature to help communicate with customers. The company is the latest large corporation and retailer to unveil new platforms and tools using artificial intelligence, as the technology is increasingly integrated into various markets. Walmart has already been using some AI tools for the past few years, according to its June 24 press release, and intends to build further on those features and add new ones. Among the new suite is a real-time translation feature available in 44 languages, intended to facilitate multilingual conversations among store employees and customers. "The tool enables conversations in both text-to-text and speech-to-speech formats and is enhanced with Walmart-specific knowledge," the company said in the release. "For example, if the customer asked for something more specific − like 'Where's Great Value Orange Juice?' − the tool would recognize 'Great Value' as a Walmart house brand and keep it properly translated or referenced." For the past five years Walmart employees have been able to use conversational AI to answer simple questions, and the company says that platform will get an upgrade in order to handle more complex questions and provide step-by-step instructions in its responses. The company says the platform already sees more than 900,000 weekly users and more than 3 million daily queries. Walmart has over 2 million employees worldwide and more than 10,750 stores. Is it all cake? Walmart reveals its highest paying job, excluding managers. More: Walmart drone delivery expands to 5 new US cities The roll out also includes an augmented reality tool intended to help associates "easily find merchandise to stock on the sales floor," specifically meant for tasks in apparel stocking and inventory. Walmart says its AI tools are powered by its proprietary machine learning platform, Element, and has been implementing various tools throughout the company over the past several years, in both corporate and store environments. The AI expansion comes a few weeks after the company announced it will be growing its drone delivery service to five more major United States cities, joining Dallas, Texas and Bentonville, Arkansas. Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Walmart's latest AI feature aims to help associates overcome language barriers
This story was originally published on CX Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CX Dive newsletter. Walmart is rolling out AI-powered tools to its 1.5 million U.S. associates with the goal of offering more support for workers to help customers in real time, the retailer announced Tuesday. The new tools will be integrated into the Walmart associate app. The tools include a real-time translation feature that can facilitate multilingual conversations between associates and customers in 44 languages. The feature supports both text-to-text and speech-to-speech formats and includes Walmart-specific knowledge, such as recognizing the term 'Great Value' as the retailer's private brand. The retailer also plans to upgrade its existing conversational AI for associates in the coming months. The tool will offer step-by-step instructions for advanced support queries like, 'How can I process a return without a receipt?' Walmart is among a growing number of retailers putting generative AI apps directly in associates' hands to streamline their workdays and enhance customer service. Walmart associates already have experience with its conversational AI tool. More than 900,000 workers use the feature every week, totaling over 3 million queries daily, according to the company. The retailer is also introducing AI-driven task management, which uses the technology to prioritize and recommend tasks for associates. Early results have led to a reduction in the time store managers spend planning shifts for overnight stocking, and the retailer is piloting the tool for shifts other than stocking as well. Walmart has been experimenting with generative AI for two years with the goal of encouraging associates to use the technology every day. The retailer's earlier associate-facing AI implementation, which helped with inventory and let workers spend more time with customers, helped drive higher NPS during the 2023 holiday season. Earlier this month, Walmart also introduced AI for customers through Sparky, an automated assistant designed to help customers by summarizing reviews and planning purchases. While Walmart is one of the retailers at the forefront of generative AI integration for employees, the company isn't alone. The Home Depot is combining training and AI tools to improve associate product and project knowledge, which executives see as a key CX differentiator. Last year, Target rolled out its own AI assistant for associates, Store Companion, which answer process and procedure-related questions. Other examples include Verizon, which last year said that its generative AI assistant helped in-store associates find answers to 95% of customer inquiries, and Office Depot, whose associates use the ODP Personal Assistant to answer common questions. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
