Walmart Enlists Artificial Intelligence for Online Grocery Substitutions

Walmart is putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work in making sure customers get what they like in online grocery orders.

Srini Venkatesan, executive vice president at Walmart Global Tech, said in a blog post yesterday that the company has developed AI-based technology to help its personal shoppers and customers make smarter substitutions for out-of-stock products.

The solution is designed to help identify the next best item for a customer if the product they initially ordered isn’t in stock, Venkatesan said. Deep learning AI considers hundreds of variables — size, type, brand, price, aggregate shopper data, individual preference and current inventory, among others — in real time to determine the best next-available item. Then, customers are asked to approve or reject the substituted item. The decision is fed back into learning algorithms to improve the accuracy of future recommendations.