A new partnership will allow Walmart and Sam’s Club customers to purchase products directly within the ChatGPT interface, moving beyond conventional web search bars into a conversational, AI-driven shopping environment. The collaboration with OpenAI, announced on Tuesday, aims to create a more intuitive and proactive retail experience where users can describe their needs in natural language to plan meals, restock household items, or discover new products.
The system integrates Walmart’s product catalog and fulfillment services with a new feature in the large language model called “Instant Checkout.” This function acts as a digital personal shopper, handling the entire transaction—from product suggestion to payment and fulfillment—within the chat conversation. Walmart describes this evolution as “agentic commerce,” a model where artificial intelligence learns a user’s habits and begins to anticipate their needs, shifting the shopping process from a reactive task to a proactive, personalized service. The feature is expected to become available to customers this fall.
A New Model for E-Commerce
The collaboration fundamentally changes the user interaction with online retail. For years, e-commerce has been defined by the search bar, which requires users to know what they are looking for and to sift through a list of results. This new model allows for a more fluid and contextual dialogue. A user could, for example, ask for a weekly meal plan with recipes and then seamlessly add all the necessary ingredients to a virtual cart for purchase and delivery from Walmart.
According to Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon, the traditional online shopping experience is on the verge of a significant transformation. “For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change,” he said in a statement. “There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual.” The goal is to make the process more enjoyable and convenient by integrating the point of inspiration directly with the point of purchase, eliminating the need to navigate away from the chat to a separate website or app.
The Technology Behind Conversational Commerce
The core of this new feature is OpenAI’s “Instant Checkout” capability, which was first announced last month. This technology allows third-party merchants to embed their product catalogs and transaction systems directly into ChatGPT. When a user discusses a need, the model can surface relevant products and offer to complete the purchase on the spot. All order processing, payment, and fulfillment are handled by the retailer, in this case, Walmart.
Walmart frames this as the next step in its “people-led, tech-powered” strategy. The company has been progressively integrating AI across its business operations to streamline processes and improve efficiency. This partnership builds on those efforts, connecting the power of a large language model directly to the consumer. OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman noted that the collaboration aims to “make everyday purchases a little simpler.”
What is Agentic Commerce?
The term “agentic commerce” refers to an AI system that acts as an intelligent agent on behalf of the user, moving beyond simple reactive responses. Instead of only fetching products based on a query, the AI learns from past interactions to predict future needs. For example, it might remind a user that they typically buy pet food at the beginning of the month or suggest products based on upcoming holidays or events. This proactive approach aims to make shopping feel less like a chore and more like a conversation with a helpful assistant who understands a user’s preferences and routines.
Walmart’s Broader AI Strategy
This partnership is not an isolated initiative but a component of Walmart’s comprehensive push into artificial intelligence. The retail giant already uses AI to enhance its vast product catalogs, manage inventory, and improve customer service interactions. The company reports that these AI applications have already yielded significant results, including reducing the production timelines for fashion items by up to 18 weeks and cutting customer care resolution times by as much as 40%.
Internally, Walmart is also embracing AI to empower its workforce. The company has adopted ChatGPT Enterprise for its corporate teams to boost creativity and productivity. It is also promoting AI literacy among its associates and is one of the first major companies to embrace OpenAI Certifications for its staff. This focus on internal AI adoption extends to its own generative AI-powered shopping assistant, named Sparky, which is being designed to offer a more conversational and personalized experience within Walmart’s own app and website.
The Competitive Landscape
Walmart and OpenAI are not alone in exploring the intersection of AI and e-commerce. The move positions them in a growing field of competitors aiming to capture the next generation of online retail. Amazon, for instance, has introduced its own personal shopper chatbot named Rufus. Meanwhile, OpenAI has been expanding its “Instant Checkout” feature with other partners. The platform already has an existing partnership with Etsy and has announced that merchants using the Shopify platform, such as Glossier, SKIMS, and Vuori, will also be available through the chat interface.
This trend suggests a broader industry shift toward embedded, conversational, and AI-driven commerce. As language models become more sophisticated, the distinction between browsing for information and making a purchase is likely to blur further. The success of these early partnerships could determine the future of how consumers interact with retailers, potentially moving the primary point of contact away from individual company websites and toward ubiquitous AI assistants.
Implications for the Future of Retail
The integration of shopping into a leading AI chatbot represents a significant step toward a future where commercial transactions are woven into the fabric of digital conversations. By meeting customers where they are already seeking information and ideas, retailers can create a more seamless and efficient path to purchase. This model leverages the AI’s ability to understand complex, nuanced requests and translate them into actionable shopping lists, saving consumers time and effort.
This partnership signals a future where AI does more than just answer questions; it will actively help manage daily tasks and purchasing decisions. For Walmart, it provides a new and powerful channel to reach its 255 million weekly customers, offering a level of personalization that traditional e-commerce platforms struggle to match. As these technologies mature, the role of AI is set to expand from a simple tool to an indispensable partner in the daily lives of consumers.
