The Next Generation of AI-Powered Retail Media

The advertising industry is entering an era defined by AI. This shift will fundamentally transform how brands reach customers, measure impact, and grow with new capabilities that can anticipate, recommend, and act. AI-powered retail media will fuel the next generation of digital media innovation by combining first-party shopping signals, omnichannel scale, and multi-format engagement—advantages Walmart Connect uniquely delivers.

We’re building the future of AI-powered retail media—one that is more intelligent, more connected, and more accountable than ever before, powered by our unparalleled omnichannel scale, solutions, and signals. For advertisers, this means campaigns that adapt faster, perform smarter, and prove results with greater certainty. When marketers can spend less time troubleshooting and more time creating, it opens a future where AI and human creativity will work together to spark innovation, spark growth, and spark sales.

And it’s already underway.

How we’re using AI to make retail media smarter, simpler, and more effective

Across the industry, marketers are asking the same question: “How will AI make my advertising better?” Our answer is clear: By removing friction, boosting performance, and connecting brands with customers in more relevant, predictive ways. For example:

• Connecting to agentic shopping experiences: In fall 2025, we tested our first advertising formats within Walmart’s Sparky agent, which we’ll continue this year. AI-first shopping experiences have the potential to transform how customers search and discover products. In fact, 81% of surveyed Walmart customers said they’d used Sparky to check product availability and review product specifications before making a purchase.¹ Search remains the most popular entry point, but as customers adopt these new shopping behaviors—as with all new touchpoints—we are exploring ways to help brands continue to meet customers where they are.
• GenAI-powered performance insights: We’re using GenAI to turn omnichannel retail data into clear, actionable intelligence, such as with our end-of-campaign reports and path to conversion reports—coming to the Walmart Connect Ad Center in FY27.
• Scaling ad creative: GenAI is beginning to help advertisers of all sizes quickly produce ready-to-activate ad creatives in minutes, such as lifestyle backgrounds for a brand’s products in our Automated Brand Shop Builder. Our Automated Creative Generator can reduce creative production time by 80%.²
• More strategic support: Our teams are using newer forms of AI to efficiently scale and provide more strategic guidance to brands—from a research assistant that instantly synthesizes documents for faster insights, to automatically generating brand-specific insights newsletters powered by Walmart’s associate super agent.

One of our biggest accomplishments this year is the rollout of our new advertising assistant, which will help power Walmart’s Marty super agent, first introduced in July 2025. 

Meet Marty advertising assistant: Where AI meets real advertiser value

Our agentic advertising assistant helps brands of all sizes to run smarter, faster, and more effective campaigns. Users of any level of expertise can build, optimize, and troubleshoot campaigns with ease—like simplifying campaign setup through plain-language guidance, from strategy to execution.

Now in beta for Sponsored Search campaigns, our advertising assistant provides clear answers and actionable recommendations via conversational chat—from bidding and keywords to billing—including personalized alerts. Currently, advertisers can access four advanced research reports via chat: Change Analysis, Account Impression Share of Voice, Account Keyword Impression Share of Voice, and Account Category Benchmark Opportunity.

We’ve already found that 97% of user queries are unique, a clear sign that advertisers are using the assistant in highly personalized ways. The advertising assistant will be available to all Sponsored Search advertisers in the Walmart Connect Ad Center later this half, with more enhanced capabilities and insights rolling out along the way.

This is only the beginning

The pace of change in AI is fast. But for us, the mission stays consistent: Delivering real value to advertisers. Simplifying the complex. Connecting brands to customers in meaningful ways through full-funnel solutions.

We know we’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible. We envision creative that builds itself from product pages and adapts across video, display, and in-store formats. Campaigns that not only target with precision but predict intent and optimize spend in the moment. Measurement that moves from reporting to real-time, predictive insight across every channel.

AI is reshaping advertising, from how brands find customers to how decisions get made. With Walmart’s scale, solutions, and signals, Walmart Connect is where that transformation will deliver meaningful outcomes.

Footnotes & citations

1. Walmart's "Ask Sparky" AI -based Shopping Assistant Custom Survey; Walmart Customer Spark Community data provided by Walmart Scintilla; survey conducted by the Walmart Connect Media Insights Primary Research survey team; August 2025.
2. Walmart first party data from 08/01/2025 to 10/31/2025. Full claim:  In early beta testing, our Gen-AI powered Automated Creative Generation (ACG) solution reduced advertisers' median creative production time in the Walmart Connect Ad Center Creative Hub by 80%, allowing them to launch display campaigns faster with less effort. Creative production time is measured in minutes between the time creative is created to the time creative is submitted. Beta participants using ACG compared against all advertisers submitting creatives manually within the same timeframe. Due to limited timeframe results may vary.