Key Takeaways
Walmart has launched a strategic partnership with OpenAI that allows customers to shop and complete purchases directly within ChatGPT, marking one of the retail industry's most significant moves into artificial intelligence-powered commerce.
The world's largest retailer announced the collaboration on October 14, enabling shoppers to use ChatGPT's "Instant Checkout" feature to browse Walmart's catalog, plan meals, restock household essentials, and discover new products through natural conversation.
The integration covers a wide range of items, including apparel, packaged foods, entertainment, and products from both Walmart and Sam's Club.
Moving beyond traditional search
Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart Inc., said the partnership represents a fundamental shift in online retail experiences.
"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," McMillon stated. "There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized, and contextual. We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships, including this important step with OpenAI."
Sam Altman, cofounder and CEO of OpenAI, said, "We're excited to partner with Walmart to make everyday purchases a little simpler. It's just one way AI will help people every day through our work together."
Competitive implications for Amazon
The announcement sent Walmart shares up nearly 5% on October 14, while Amazon stock fell 1% the same day. Industry analysts view the partnership as a direct challenge to Amazon's dominance in online retail.
CNBC's Jim Cramer characterized the move bluntly: "This is a direct attack on Amazon."
Data from Similarweb shows ChatGPT now drives approximately 20% of Walmart's referral traffic as of August 2025, up 15% from July. In contrast, Amazon has blocked AI crawlers from scraping its site, resulting in an 18% decline in ChatGPT referral traffic during the same period.
Daniel Danker, Walmart's executive vice president of AI, product, and design, explained in an interview with Bloomberg that users will be able to shop Walmart's full assortment by clicking a "buy" button within ChatGPT conversations.
Broader AI strategy
Walmart describes the partnership as part of its "agentic commerce" vision, where AI systems move from reactive tools to proactive assistants that learn, predict, and anticipate customer needs.
The company already uses AI across multiple business functions.
According to Walmart's announcement, these applications have reduced fashion production timelines by up to 18 weeks and cut customer care resolution times by up to 40%. Walmart has also rolled out ChatGPT Enterprise to teams across the company and is promoting AI literacy through OpenAI Certifications.
The retailer has separately developed Sparky, its own generative AI shopping assistant designed to help customers discover products, make comparisons, and complete purchases through multimodal inputs, including text, images, audio, and video.
The Walmart-OpenAI partnership follows similar moves by other retailers. Etsy and Shopify merchants have also integrated with ChatGPT's Instant Checkout feature, while Amazon recently launched its own AI tool called "Help Me Decide" on October 23.
Mizuho analyst David Bellinger suggested the OpenAI partnership could help propel Walmart toward a trillion-dollar valuation, calling the alliance a significant strategic move for the retailer.
Walmart confirmed the feature will launch this fall for Walmart products and third-party sellers, with Sam's Club items to follow shortly after. The company did not specify an exact rollout date.
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