On Tuesday, Walmart execs said they would put ads in Sparky, its AI shopping agent, as well as provide generative AI-powered performance insights and creative. There's also Marty, Walmart's agentic advertising assistant, in beta for sponsored search campaigns to help with billing and bidding, with plans to make it available widely later this year. The announcements come on the heels of Walmart's tests last year with Sparky and Marty.
ChatGPT now drives roughly 20% of Walmart's referral traffic, Modern Retail previously reported. It's worth noting, however, that referral clicks account for less than 5% of total site visits. A working paper authored by OpenAI's Economic Research team found that around 2% of all ChatGPT queries involve shopping, or about 50 million queries per day. Selling its wares within ChatGPT positions Walmart to capture sales if AI-powered shopping takes off.
