Walmart launches agent profiles and merges memberships

Walmart is launching agent profiles in the coming weeks to support the rise of personal agents like Muse and Insight. This feature allows customers to delegate authority to AI agents to shop on their behalf, setting specific spending limits and frequency caps. The system recognizes the customer's account and identity while processing requests from the agent, ensuring the agent has the same experience as the human user. Walmart aims to use this to connect digital intent with its physical supply chain, leveraging its 2.2 million employees to remove friction and provide the best next action for operating units. The strategy is part of a broader reorientation toward being 'people-led, tech-powered' and omni-channel, where technology enables customers to express intent in plain English and receive solutions from a catalog of a billion items with inventory and pricing context. In a related structural move, Walmart President and CEO John Ferner announced the integration of the company's membership programs, merging Walmart Plus and Sam's Club Plus. Under the new structure, purchasing one membership grants access to the other. Ferner noted that while the company listens to feedback from its 2.2 million associates, major structural changes like this must be driven top-down to ensure alignment. The move is part of a broader effort to overhaul the C-suite and integrate a tech stack within eight months of Ferner taking the role, aiming to position the company for the 'era of intelligence' and AI. Additionally, Walmart is democratizing AI tools for its employees, with approximately 80,000 associates having taken AI certifications. In Canada, a forklift driver named Michael wrote a script on a platform called Vibe, which was deployed in December and saves him 15 to 18 minutes per shift.