Walmart launched its Sparky AI shopping assistant, shown here, in June and is now partnering with OpenAI to let customers shop with and pay using its ChatGPT chatbot.

People are already using the artificial intelligence agent ChatGPT for advice on parenting and dating. Now, Walmart wants AI to help you do your online shopping.

The world's largest retailer is partnering with OpenAI to let customers shop with and pay using its ChatGPT chatbot, Walmart announced on Tuesday, Oct. 14. The rollout, expected soon, will assist shoppers and let them pay using OpenAI's Instant Checkout technology.

"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," said Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon in a news release. "There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual."

Walmart's debuted its own Sparky AI shopping assistant in June and it apparently will remain part of the new shopping experience with ChatGPT. "We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI," McMillon said.

How will OpenAI and ChatGPT help me shop at Walmart?

Walmart shoppers and Sam's Club members can use AI to help in "planning meals, restocking household essentials, or finding something new, customers can simply chat and buy, and Walmart will handle the rest," the company says in its announcement.

With ChatGPT, when a shopper asks about, for instance, "best running shoes under $100" or "gifts for a ceramics lover," the chatbot shows them relevant products and with Instant Checkout, which OpenAI announced Sept. 29, "users can tap 'Buy,' confirm their order, shipping, and payment details (you can have saved payment options), and complete the purchase."

Etsy and Shopify were announced as initial merchants using Instant Checkout for single-item purchases, with multi-item online carts coming, according to OpenAI.

"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 under our work together," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement.

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Artificial intelligence has been embraced by retail for many purposes including AI that lets you try on clothes while shopping online, and automated shopping that tallies your purchases automatically (no checkout lane required), pioneered by Amazon at its stores, airports and stadiums, as well as in Walmart's own Sam's Clubs.

Three months ago, Walmart said it would begin using AI to help its shoppers, store employees, suppliers and sellers, and software developers – to improve the shopping experience for shoppers and streamline company operations.

Consumers are already embracing AI shopping agents, with 64% saying they already use, plan to use or would like to use generative AI for shopping, according to a Coresight Research survey of 400 online consumers, released Oct. 14. Nearly three in 10 (29%) said they were more likely to shop on a website with an AI chatbot.

Many shoppers are experimenting with AI chatbots. "The younger generations are kind of AI-first consumers, they start with ChatGPT," John Harmon, managing director of technology at Coresight Research, told USA TODAY.

Using AI to shop can help you shop better, said Harmon, who considered himself a skeptic until a friend gave him an assist. "I was looking for a backpack. So I go into ChatGPT and I said, 'Show me stylish designer backpacks for men under $100' and it produced a rich page of product and photos and recommendations and descriptions and reviews," he said. "It's a really rich shopping … and search experience that these, these chatbots, provide."

Walmart said its AI shopping experience will shift "from reactive to proactive as it learns, plans and predicts, helping customers anticipate their needs before they do."

Some shoppers may not want to share all the information needed to shop online using AI bots, Harmon said. "Everything you type into a chatbot is used by the model to get better. So it stays there. Protecting your personal information is a big deal," he said.

Shoppers will need to learn to balance AI's advice. "I get blast emails from certain retailers offering me 40% off jewelry every day, but I don't buy jewelry," Harmon said.

Chatbots "could improve the personalization as it gets to know you and what you like," he said, "which could save you time and help people buy more stuff, right, but improve the shopping experience so you are not wasting your time with ads for products that you don't want."

Contributing: Reuters

Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Walmart is incorporating ChatGPT into online shopping. Here's how.

Reporting by Mike Snider, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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