Walmart & Microsoft Team Up in Joint Interest to Beat Amazon

At Microsoft's Inspire partner conference last week, Walmart announced that they are partnering with Microsoft to use their cloud service offerings to improve Walmart's forecasting, purchasing, and data-sharing abilities. Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has agreed to a five-year term with Microsoft to use their cloud technology and artificial intelligence to optimize its workflows by integrating its data more deeply into Azure. The company hopes that new AI and machine learning algorithms will make it easier to streamline deliveries and cut costs as it continues to expand its online offerings. Those now include grocery pickup, smart home tech installation, and more, in addition to traditional online purchases. Microsoft is reportedly also working on a technology that could be used to power check-out free retail stores which is a perfect fit for Walmart shoppers.