Walmart & OpenAI Partnership: The Dawn of Agentic Commerce 

The retail race is no longer about who has the best value or prices — it’s about who owns the moment of intent. 

Early last week, Walmart announced a new partnership with OpenAI meant to unlock a multi-media-filled, personalized, and contextual shopping experience. It marks the dawn of agentic commerce  — or what some are calling AI-first shopping — where AI doesn’t just assist shoppers, it acts on their behalf.

According to a CNN source, this new feature is expected to roll out later this fall. Through this partnership, users will soon be able to shop Walmart’s catalog directly in ChatGPT, transforming the way discovery and purchase moments occur.

Walmart and OpenAI’s partnership is a glimpse into how AI will redefine the way we discover, decide, and buy online.

ChatGPT as the new checkout counter for ecommerce 

Imagine a conversation that converts. No switching between 28 Google tabs or five apps, and no doom-scrolling through tens of irrelevant products. Just a list of 3-5 highly personalized products that you get to choose and click ‘Buy’ right there to complete the purchase. 

Powered by ChatGPT’s new Instant Checkout feature, Walmart shoppers can bypass the traditional ecommerce sequence  “search → browse → add-to-cart → checkout” — and instead move seamlessly through a new flow: “prompt → response → select → check out.”

So, instead of opening multiple tabs or scrolling through endless product pages, you could simply type something like “Christmas gifts for 5-year-olds” in the chatbot. The AI-agent curates a short list of super relevant items and presents you with a checkout button, so you and buy the perfect present for your favorite little person at Walmart right from the ChatGPT conversation.

How will Walmart’s AI-first shopping experience work?

Walmart’s AI-first shopping experience will center around its new assistant, “Sparky,” which learns each customer’s preferences, anticipates upcoming needs, and helps with tasks like meal planning or restocking essentials — all while enabling shoppers to complete purchases directly within ChatGPT using Instant Checkout.

Better yet, AI will ask follow-up questions and learn from users’ past purchases and behavior to make appropriate recommendations in the future. And as a result, Walmart buyers can use the Instant Checkout feature to plan meals and restock the house. Users will also receive timely reminders when it’s time to reorder essentials.

You’re probably wondering: Will I be able to purchase everything I need from the Walmart AI chatbot? Not quite. Fresh foods won’t be available, but you can always order packaged foods, apparel, devices, and other non-discretionary goods.  

The shift to agentic commerce: What it means for businesses

Agentic commerce is the new era of online shopping, where AI agents act on behalf of consumers and redefine how and where purchase decisions are made.

That’s why Walmart’s move to create an AI-first shopping experience isn’t just another AI integration! It’s a signal that the customer’s journey as we know it is being rewritten.

Now, instead of starting the journey on Google or a retailer’s website, users will initiate conversations with AI agents, with the hope that they can also conclude it there. 

Now that Walmart has made it possible, it’s a wake-up call for every business owner.

With agentic commerce, customers simply put in prompts “pet grooming services in my area” or “best running shoes for beginners,” and they get 3 -5 hyper-personalized and relevant options to choose from. 

The agents are able to present them with tailored recommendations because they know their preferences, remember their last orders, and anticipate what they’ll need next. Better yet, it can even buy on their behalf. No website hopping. No cart abandonment. Just instant decisions.

This hyper-personalization will ensure that more often than not, they leave the chat having made a purchase.

So while Walmart’s move might sound big and far-off, it’s really a nudge for every business to start thinking AI-first.

Why does this partnership matter beyond Walmart?

Walmart is already seeing and feeling the impact of jumping on the biggest AI retail shopping experience yet! For starters, Walmart’s stock jumped 6% immediately after the announcement, marking its biggest single-day gain since April of this year. 

But the real impact goes beyond share prices. That’s why Walmart’s not stopping here. CEO Doug McMillon has hinted that the AI agent will soon handle reorders and returns — features that could make “one-chat shopping” the new norm.

Other ecommerce giants are moving fast too: Stripe just partnered with Etsy and Shopify to enable AI-powered checkout for over a million merchants, including SKIMS and Spanx.

For small business owners, that means one thing: AI is becoming your new storefront.

Adopting an AI-first shopping experience will position your brand at the center of the next big thing in ecommerce. One where AI agents handle product discovery, decision-making, and even checkout. 

What businesses should do now?

The next era of ecommerce will reward the businesses that show up early — and show up well. So, don’t wait until AI decides your competitors are the default choice. 

It’s time to wake up to the fact that your customers won’t always be typing into Google. They’ll be chatting with AI. That means your visibility depends on how easily AI can understand and trust your business data. 

So here’s how you should start optimizing your business for the new phase of ecommerce:

• Create conversational content: Your content has to talk back. That means the FAQs, service and product descriptions, and blog posts must provide users with real solutions. This will help AI tools know when to recommend you to clients.
• Add structured data: Structured data (like schema markup) tells AI exactly what your business does, where you are, and what customers think of you. The clearer your data, the more likely AI tools are to feature your products or services when people ask for them.
• Build a frictionless checkout: AI-driven shoppers expect instant decisions and easy transactions. That means mobile-friendly pages, one-click purchasing options, and seamless payment integrations. The fewer steps it takes to buy from you, the more likely they are to purchase and repurchase from you. 
• Prioritize an AI brand presence: Make your business visible, trustworthy, and easy for AI systems to recognize and recommend. With OmniSEO™, WebFX helps you turn your content, data, and customer experience into signals AI can interpret and trust, ensuring your brand shows up where conversations (and conversions) now happen.

Future-proof your ecommerce with WebFX

AI-first commerce isn’t coming — it’s here. And Walmart’s partnership with OpenAI is proof that the storefront of the future won’t be a website or an app. It’ll be a conversation.

So, the question remains: When customers start talking to AI about what they need, will your business show up in that conversation? With WebFX, you can! 

We use insights from real search behavior, voice queries, and AI recommendation patterns to help you build an AI-ready brand presence. Whether it’s through improved FAQs, schema markup, or user-centric storytelling, we ensure your brand becomes part of the AI conversation.

Start preparing for the future today with our ChatGPT optimization services. It’s an ongoing service that will help you adapt to generative engines and AI models so you can reach your consumers earlier in the funnel.