Walmarthas been actively exploring the use of artificial intelligence, and they recently began testing their ownLarge Language Models(LLM), named Wallaby.
The model is designed for the retail industry and has been trained with decades of Walmart data to better understand how employees and customers communicate. It also responds in a more natural way, designed to align with Walmart's core values of customer service.
Desirée Gosby, Walmart's vice president of emerging technologies for global technology, said in an interview that Wallaby is still in the internal testing phase, especially for the large number of Walmart employees who are undergoing in-depth testing. "Wallaby hasn't been rolled out to the public yet; we're doing a lot of internal testing. Over the next year, we'll start utilizing it." Gosby mentioned that Wallaby's first app will probably be more consumer-oriented.
In order to increase the flexibility of application development, Walmart decided to use a combination of models. Not only do they use Wallaby as an internal model, but they also choose off-the-shelf models or previously developed algorithms depending on their needs. gosby mentions that Walmart manages these models through a platform called Element, which gives them the flexibility to use different models depending on the needs of the application.
Walmart isn't the only retailer making a push into AI - Amazon has also launched a chatbot called Rufus that specializes in answering product-related questions. Meanwhile, Walmart has long been making AI tools available to employees at its headquarters, including launching a chatbot for employees to look up Walmart policies and employee handbooks. In addition, they are using AI to optimize supply chain management and store operations, including helping employees with inventory management and checkout processes.
In terms of digital platforms, Walmart recently upgraded the functionality of its customer support assistant to allow chatbots to better recognize customer needs. For example, if a customer mentions that they accidentally purchased a toy, the assistant will focus on the word "toy" and can quickly provide relevant order information and even proactively ask the customer if they need to return the item. All of these enhancements are designed to make the customer experience more personalized and smooth.
In the coming year, Walmart will continue to explore how it can leverage AI to improve the customer and employee experience, and Wallaby's application will be a big part of that.