Walmart's new AI predicts grocery substitutes for shoppers

Big-box retailer Walmart is using artificial intelligence (AI) to aid customers and personal shoppers and better handle still-surging online demand for groceries amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In a blog post Thursday, Srini Venkatesan, Walmart's global tech executive vice president, noted that as Americans increasingly turned to the internet to shop for essentials, stores like Walmart were presented with a "unique challenge." The alternate shopping method combined with the volume of in-store shoppers – especially in the months of March and April – resulted in popular items quickly selling out. Last July, Walmart corporate affairs said the company had hired more than 400,000 new associates to mitigate the sudden "customer rush on essentials as lockdowns spread across the U.S." "Walmart's solution was to use artificial intelligence to help both customers and Personal Shoppers choose the best substitute for an out-of-stock item," said Venkatesan. An illustrated video included in the blog post shows a Walmart personal shopper who needs to make a substitution for an online order.