The Alliance Between Walmart and OpenAI Marks a New Step in AI-Driven Commerce

Walmart and OpenAI have announced a strategic alliance that promises to redefine the online shopping experience. From now on, Walmart customers will be able to shop directly through ChatGPT, taking advantage of the new Instant Checkout feature, which allows them to place orders without leaving the chat. This integration simplifies the shopping process, redefines the Customer Journey and drives a new form of relationship between consumer and technology: conversational commerce powered by Artificial Intelligence.​

This move hasn’t come out of the blue. According to data from Similarweb, in September 2025, 15% of the referral traffic received by Walmart.com came from ChatGPT (although this accounts for less than 1% of all the traffic the retailer receives). Furthermore, almost 3 in 10 OpenAI app users have visited Walmart in recent months. 

This reflects a new consumer pattern: shoppers are starting their journeys within conversations, not just on traditional search engines.

An AI-Native Experience

According to Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart:

“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. There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual.”

Customers will be able to ask ChatGPT things like “plan a vegetarian dinner for four” or “recommend a 4K television for under 400 dollars.” The system will respond with suggestions from Walmart’s catalogue and allow them to complete the purchase instantly with Instant Checkout, without needing to browse pages or fill shopping baskets.​

From Search to Discovery: the Rise of Agentic Commerce

The agreement with OpenAI promotes the concept of agentic commerce, in which AI shifts from being reactive to proactive. This means it learns from interactions, recognises purchasing patterns and anticipates consumer needs before they are even expressed.​

Walmart has been integrating Artificial Intelligence into its value chain for some time. It currently uses it to:

  • Reduce fashion production times by up to 18 weeks.
  • Optimise customer service, ensuring a smoother shopping experience and cutting response times by up to 40%.
  • Manage inventory and logistics predictively.​

This new phase brings that intelligence directly to the consumer, transforming the act of shopping into a fluid and personalised conversation.

Instant Checkout: Speed, Convenience and Personalisation

The central feature of this alliance is Instant Checkout, initially developed by OpenAI for Shopify, as we discussed in a recent article. Walmart is now incorporating it into its ecosystem to offer instant in-chat purchases, processed securely through integrations with payment systems like Stripe.​

Initially, Instant Checkout will apply to individual products—such as snacks, cleaning supplies or tech—although Walmart plans to soon expand the capability to multiple-item purchases and more complex deliveries.​

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, highlighted that this collaboration aims to simplify the everyday shopping experience: 

“We’re excited to work with Walmart to make everyday purchases a little simpler. It’s just one way AI will help people every day.”

The Race to Dominate Agentic Commerce

While Walmart and OpenAI are making progress on integrating shopping within ChatGPT, in parallel, a quiet but intense technological race is being fought to control agentic commerce. 

According to the latest analysis from CB Insights, four companies are consolidating their position as the cornerstones of this transformation: OpenAI, Perplexity, Google and Shopify. These firms have established more than 30 agreements in the last two years, far surpassing giants like Amazon, Anthropic or Meta.​

Agentic and AI commerce partnerships across big techs and AI leaders

Source: 4 companies race to control agentic commerce through partnerships -CB Insights, 2025

OpenAI is leading the ecosystem with its Agentic Commerce Protocol, developed jointly with Stripe, which allows purchases to be made directly in ChatGPT securely and autonomously. Its collaboration with Shopify, Etsy and Walmart reinforces the strategy of turning ChatGPT into an AI-native transaction channel.​

For its part, Shopify is positioning itself as the infrastructure provider for agentic commerce, integrating its catalogue, Shop Pay and the new Universal Cart into AI environments so that different agents can make purchases from multiple stores in a single conversational flow.​

Google, through its Gemini ecosystem and agreements with major brands like Home Depot, Alaska Airlines and Behr, is seeking to connect assisted search with direct purchasing, strengthening its presence in AI-enabled consumer experiences.​

Meanwhile, Perplexity has opted to be the smart aggregator for the new retail landscape. Its conversational search agent model allows users to discover, compare and purchase products directly within its interface, in alliance with platforms like Shopify and Amazon.​

In this race, alliances are key. No single company can control all the components of agentic commerce on its own—AI models, data, sales platforms and payment systems—so collaboration between tech players has become the foundation that will allow this new digital retail paradigm to scale.

A New Business Model for OpenAI

The conversational integration with Walmart also inaugurates a new revenue stream for OpenAI. The company plans to charge commission on each transaction made within ChatGPT, creating a monetisation model that goes beyond subscriptions and APIs.​

This expansion into commerce positions ChatGPT as a universal shopping interface, connecting consumers with brands without intermediaries. A natural evolution from chatbot to transaction platform.

Implications for the Future of E-commerce: The Dawn of the “Smart Retail” Era

The impact of this move goes beyond Walmart. According to analysts at the RetailTech Innovation Hub, this alliance “should serve as a wake-up call for the entire retail sector”, due to its ability to increase personalisation, reduce friction and expand contextual data on consumers.​

By moving the act of shopping to a conversational context, Walmart:

  • Reduces friction points and basket abandonment.
  • Strengthens the emotional and personalised relationship with the user.
  • Brings sales closer to everyday digital environments, such as virtual assistants and messaging apps.

Daniel Danker, Executive Vice President of AI and Product Design at Walmart, explained that this development:

“Brings the brand to the consumer where they already are: in the conversational environment”.

This reflects a strategic shift towards an AI-based omnichannel experience.​

Logos symbolising the alliance between Walmart and OpenAI

The Walmart–OpenAI alliance is more than a technological innovation: it symbolises the birth of smart retail based on dialogue, personalisation and proactivity. With this collaboration, Walmart is consolidating its role as a leader in AI adoption in retail and redefining the way consumers interact with brands.

Commerce is no longer a search; it is becoming a conversation. And that conversation, increasingly, will speak the language of Artificial Intelligence.