In a CES 2024 keynote address, Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon and other key execs from the company offered a look at how the retail giant is putting technologies like drones and augmented reality (AR) as well as generative AI and other artificial intelligence tools to improve the customer shopping experience. Walmart unveiled new products, including a pair of AI-powered platforms for managing search for replenishment of products. In addition, a new AR social commerce platform, now in beta, called “Shop with Friends” was also highlighted.

Shop with Friends “takes AR shopping to the next level by enabling customers to share the virtual outfits they create with friends and get feedback on their fashion finds,” Walmart writes in its CES news release.

The tool “combines Walmart’s AI-powered virtual try-on tech, launched last year, with social features,” writes TechCrunch, quoting McMillon couching it as a new trend called “‘adaptive retail’ — that is, retail experiences that are personalized and flexible.”

As for the replenishment enhancement, “imagine never running out of milk again,” The Verge reports, noting Walmart is tapping AI to introduce a new aspect of its $20 per month InHome membership that “aims to automatically order the right stuff at the right time, and hand it off to a delivery person who can drop things off in a fridge in your house.”

Currently, Walmart InHome members get products delivered but must choose and order the items themselves. “By training its models on both your habits and Walmart’s overall knowledge of how people buy and consume stuff, the company figures it can begin to make your grocery list for you,” The Verge adds.

The new feature puts Walmart ahead of Amazon in one aspect of the tech race, according to TechCrunch, which says “surprisingly, Amazon has not yet leveraged AI to do the same (i.e. to augment or replace Dash Replenishment).”

Walmart is also introducing an iOS GenAI search feature that allows customers to “search for products by use cases, instead of by product or brand names,” according to TechCrunch, explaining  that “you could ask Walmart to return search results for things needed for a ‘football watch party,’ instead of specifically typing in searches for chips, wings, drinks or a 90-inch TV.”

Walmart’s AI-powered search results are being compared to Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience), which is able to recommend products, contextualizing the results with insights that could affect decision making, including prices, images and reviews.

Walmart also showcased how it is using AI in related business areas, including within its wholly owned Sam’s Club subsidiary and in employee apps.