Suresh Kumar, Executive Vice President, Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer, Walmart Inc
Walmart Inc is doubling down on its investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning to transform the retail experience across its global operations, according to Suresh Kumar, Executive Vice-President, Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer, Walmart Inc.
In an exclusive conversation with businessline, Kumar said, “It’s an exciting time to be in retail as we are fundamentally transforming all aspects of the business.”
A major thrust for Walmart’s strategy is the rollout of agentic AI systems that can make decisions and take automated actions, which will reshape how customers shop, how the company manages merchandise flows, and how internal teams operate. These systems aim to reduce cognitive load and streamline complexity for shoppers and vendors.
AI super agents
The company has built four AI ‘super agents’ — ‘Sparky’, its customer shopping agent; an internal workforce support agent; ‘Marty’ for marketplace sellers and suppliers; and a developer agent ‘WIBEY’ that speeds up how they test, build and launch.
These ‘super agents’ consolidate hundreds of underlying task-based bots and reduce cognitive load by giving each user a single interface, he explained.
Walmart currently operates more than 4,000 stores in the US, located within 10 miles of 90 per cent of the population, and sees AI as the bridge between physical stores, and e-commerce. “Sparky allows us to be truly ‘omnichannel,” he said emphasising that AI is becoming the glue that integrates stores, supply chain and e-commerce.
Kumar stressed that India is at the centre of this tech transformation, highlighting the critical role of the tech hubs in Bengaluru and Chennai. The India GCC (global capability centre) has a headcount of 11,000-12,000 employees, according to independent sources.
Collaborations
In September 2024, Walmart leased 1 million sq ft of office space in Bengaluru to expand its capabilities and accelerate innovation. The company also actively collaborates with start-ups and academic institutions, including IIT Madras.
While investing heavily in proprietary technology, Walmart is also partnering with OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. The retailer recently integrated product discovery into ChatGPT.
Published on December 1, 2025
