Walmart and SymphonyAI executives share examples of how innovative technology improves the way retail employees do their jobs
The disruptive force of AI is changing every aspect of grocery retail jobs, employee productivity, and how organizations create value by more effectively serving shoppers. This is the new reality for 2025 as AI transitions to adoption and execution following a year in which AI gained awareness, enthusiasm for specific use cases grew and agentic AI emerged.
These changes and the impact on retail jobs were the focus of the recent webinar, “Retail Jobs and AI: What Grocers Can Expect in 2025,” hosted by Progressive Grocer with guest speakers David Glick, SVP of Walmart’s Enterprise Business Services, and Manish Choudhary, president of SymphonyAI’s retail CPG division. Among the topics the speakers focused on were:
- The top ways predictive and generative AI, and now agentic AI, are impacting various jobs, productivity, and value creation.
- The integration of historically siloed sources of data to create a unified data platform essential for effective AI.
- Real-world examples from store-level to headquarters of how AI is transforming tasks, optimizes workflows, and improves outcomes.
- How agentic AI is starting to create opportunities to improve workflows, optimize decision-making, and drive growth.
Walmart’s Glick and SymphonyAI’s Choudhary approach these issues with perspectives shaped by their unique backgrounds. Glick leads Walmart’s enterprise systems, including people technology modernization, finance tech, associate digital experience, and shared services. Before Walmart, Glick served as chief technology officer at Flexe, a logistics and supply chain company, and prior to that, spent two decades at Amazon, where he was responsible for all the technology inside Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Choudhary leads the largest division at SymphonyAI, a top provider of predictive and generative AI SaaS products for the enterprise, recognized as the 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year for Business Transformation – AI Innovation.
Walmart’s Journey: AI Integration Across Operations
As an acknowledged leader in retail technology, Glick shared examples of how Walmart uses AI to enhance productivity and customer service throughout the organization. For example, in distribution centers, it has implemented an intelligent truck-loading system that organizes pallets by store aisle. This seemingly simple change has significantly improved store associates’ efficiency by eliminating the need to sort through mixed pallets, reducing frustration, and increasing productivity. Glick noted the system exemplifies how targeted AI can solve long-standing operational challenges while improving employee satisfaction.
Building on this success, Walmart implemented “vis pick,” a QR code-based inventory management system for backrooms. This technology provides precise inventory tracking that supports better ordering processes and helps associates quickly locate items. The system represents a significant step forward in modernizing inventory management practices, especially for accurate backroom inventory counts. By improving visibility into stock levels, the system has boosted both operational efficiency and customer service through better product availability, according to Glick.
Transforming Corporate Operations with Generative AI
Walmart has embraced AI at its home office, and the commitment starts at the top with CEO Doug McMillon. His vision is for every associate to use AI every day. This ambitious goal has driven the company to implement several innovative solutions. The journey began with an AI playground where associates could experiment with the technology, leading to the development of “My Assistant,” a secure wrapper around various LLMs (large language models) with added guardrails. This approach of encouraging experimentation while maintaining security has proven crucial to successful adoption, Glick said.
One particularly successful implementation has been the retailer’s AI-powered benefits help desk. By integrating AI technology with a database containing the company’s 300-page benefits guide, the system has cut average query handling time in half, dramatically improving employee service efficiency. The system allows agents to quickly access accurate information while maintaining the human touch in customer service, Glick said. Similarly, Walmart’s AI summarization tools for complex case management have transformed processes that once took a full day into tasks that can be completed in minutes, which has been particularly useful for workers’ compensation claims and similar complex cases requiring extensive documentation review.
Why SymphonyAI Supports Connected Retail
The transformation of processes was a key theme of the conversation and a topic highlighted by SymphonyAI’s Choudhary. He demonstrated how advances in AI and the emergence of agentic AI, with its ability to automate workflows, have put the retail industry at a tipping point, with 2025 shaping up as a pivotal year. He described how SymphonyAI’s CINDE Connected Retail platform addresses the long-standing challenge in retail of disparate data sources. Only through the unification of data from traditionally separate functions such as supply chain, inventory, pricing, and promotions, can retailers begin to pragmatically unlock the power of AI. Choudhary described how the CINDE Connected Retail platform lets SymphonyAI customers solve data challenges and create seamless experiences across all shopping channels customers expect.
The platform’s innovation lies in its use of “skills” – specialized AI models combined with domain knowledge for specific retail functions in areas such as demand forecasting or category management. In the case of CINDE Connected Retail for in-store analytics, these AI skills incorporate sophisticated computer vision technology for near real-time store monitoring and automated decision-making. This approach has produced remarkable results, with the system capable of automating up to 90% of routine tasks, which frees up workers to perform high-value tasks and spend more time with shoppers. The time-savings are nothing short of remarkable, with Choudhary citing an example where a week-long merchandising analysis process can be condensed to minutes. The platform’s success demonstrates how AI can transform not just individual tasks but entire business processes.
The Rise of Agentic AI
Glick and Choudhary agreed that the emergence of agentic AI represents a significant evolution in retail technology because of how it can automate decisions within specified guardrails. Walmart currently operates approximately 45 different AI agents but has plans for more, as a means to automate tedious tasks and free associates for higher-value purposes. These agents sit underneath Walmart’s “My Assistant,” which routes queries to the appropriate place.
The big difference between AI-powered bots and agentic AI is that a bot is an effective way to query a system and retrieve data, whereas agentic AI can, as the name implies, function as an autonomous or semi-autonomous agent to automatically perform certain functions. This advancement in AI capability has transformed both data queries and transactional actions because users don’t need to navigate multiple systems or interfaces. Agents can seamlessly coordinate complex tasks across different departments and functions. For example, a single request to an AI agent can trigger a series of coordinated actions across multiple systems, from inventory checks to price adjustments, all while maintaining appropriate security protocols and business rules, according to Glick.
AI agents function best when retailers identify common tasks that tend to be data and labor-intensive and free agents to make intelligent decisions. The value creation comes from the time savings associated with executing the task, the increased accuracy of decision-making, and the redeployment of labor against higher-value, strategic activities. Agentic AI helps create a more autonomous organization that can address the complex business challenges endemic to the retail industry in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago.
Balancing Speed, Innovation, and Security
As retailers embrace AI’s transformative potential, they must carefully balance rapid adoption with robust security measures. Walmart has addressed this challenge through its Element platform, which provides a secure interface for working with various LLMs, according to Glick. This platform enables innovation while maintaining strict control over sensitive information and ensuring appropriate data governance.
Similarly, SymphonyAI has prioritized enterprise-grade security with ringfenced data environments, according to Choudhary. The approach includes sophisticated orchestration capabilities that determine when to use small or large language models, public or private AI systems, all while maintaining strict data security. Both companies emphasize the prevention of data misuse and misinformation, with particular attention paid to preventing AI hallucinations and maintaining data accuracy.
The Year of Agentic AI and What Won’t Change
Looking ahead to 2025, the retail industry stands at the threshold of what could be argued is the most significant period of technological advancement in its history. Agentic AI innovations and implementations will start to gain traction and take hold, accelerating value creation. This will create a virtuous cycle as agents grow smarter and adoption increases. Aiding in the realization of this scenario is a focus on creating intuitive interfaces that make AI accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise.
While the AI-fueled transformation will unfold at an accelerating pace throughout 2025, one constant remains. Glick reminded webinar attendees that customers will continue to value low prices, convenient experiences, and a broad product selection. What changes is how the execution of these enduring retail priorities is achieved. Increasingly, it is the “how” aspect of the conversation that centers around AI and the need for a connected retail platform to unify data and unlock the potential of AI.
The conversation between Glick and Choudhary made it clear that while tools and technologies evolve, the focus must remain on solving real business problems and creating value for both customers and employees. As retailers continue their AI journey, the emphasis on practical implementation and measurable results will be key to successful transformation in the years ahead.
