How Walmart's Indian IT team used AI to predict customer preferences

Online orders skyrocketed at Walmart, the largest retailer in the US, when the pandemic hit, making more work for in-store employees. At the same time, demand for certain products led to frequent stock outages. While Walmart's ordering app allowed customers to indicate their preferred substitutes for out-of-stock products, customers usually skipped this step. This forced the Walmart employees who pick and pack items on behalf of the customer to make the decision themselves. As a result, dissatisfied customers returned one in ten substitute items, leaving Walmart to refund the full amount of the product and pick up the cost of restocking.