Retail AI Agents Move From Back Office to Front Line
Retail AI agents are software systems that can autonomously analyze data, hold natural-language conversations, and take actions like recommending products or arranging fulfillment to improve the shopping experience and sales performance across digital and physical channels. After early use in forecasting and inventory, retail AI implementation is now shifting into direct shopper engagement. Retailers are building conversational AI shopping tools that combine first-party data, product catalogs, and behavioral signals to deliver a more personal AI customer experience. These agents answer questions, suggest items, and support purchase decisions inside apps, websites, and even stores. At the same time, they still feed operational systems, linking front-end interactions with supply chain and advertising decisions. This dual role is turning retail AI agents into a central layer that connects customer-facing experiences with the logistics and merchandising engines behind them.
Walmart’s Sparky Ties AI Customer Experience to Sales Metrics
Walmart is positioning itself as “AI native” and placing its Sparky shopping agent at the center of that strategy. Sparky is embedded across Walmart’s ecommerce site, mobile app, and stores, where it supports conversational AI shopping, personalized replenishment, meal planning, and recommendations tuned to inventory positioning, prices, and delivery speed. Weekly active users of Sparky grew more than 100% in the last quarter, and Walmart reports that Sparky’s intelligence and response quality have improved by 40% this year. One clear signal of AI-powered sales growth: customers who use Sparky show an average order value about 35% higher than non-users. Units purchased through the agent have more than quadrupled since the previous fiscal quarter, as shoppers shift from general merchandise discovery to everyday essentials like food and consumables. Sparky also links to fulfillment and supply chain systems, helping Walmart position inventory and make real-time fulfillment decisions.
Inside Sparky’s Role in Advertising and Supply Chain Decisions
Beyond direct shopping help, Walmart’s retail AI agents influence how goods move and how advertising performs. Executives say AI now supports decisions on where to position inventory and how to fulfill orders so customers and members are served in real time, building on several years of supply chain investment. That same data foundation feeds advertising tools, where AI helps campaign buyers adjust content mix dynamically and expand reach across properties such as Vizio’s connected platform. Walmart attributes a 37% global increase in advertising revenue in its latest fiscal quarter, including 36% growth in the U.S., partly to these AI-enabled capabilities. Because Sparky understands what customers search, browse, and buy, its insights can shape targeted ads and sponsored product placements while still prioritizing useful recommendations. The result is a tighter loop between AI customer experience, inventory decisions, and monetization of traffic through retail media.
DICK’S Sporting Goods Turns AI Into a Digital Coach
DICK’S Sporting Goods is extending store expertise into its app with Coach by DICK’S, an agentic AI conversational experience built to guide athletes across their sports journeys. Integrated into the DICK’S mobile app, Coach combines the retailer’s product and sport knowledge with Adobe Brand Concierge technology, which is trained on approved brand content and customer data. The agent supports natural-language conversations and tailors guidance to each athlete’s sport, goals, interests, skill level, and preferences. Shoppers can receive product recommendations, training tips, and product education, and gain confidence when choosing equipment and services. According to the company, the AI experience is designed to go beyond transactional shopping, adapting in real time to behaviors and shared input and evolving as features are added. The rollout of Coach begins in June, with more functionality planned as DICK’S refines its broader AI customer experience strategy.
Agentic Commerce Signals the Next Retail AI Implementation Wave
The launch of Coach by DICK’S comes as retailers build infrastructure for agentic commerce systems that guide shoppers end-to-end through product discovery and purchase. These retail AI agents rely on first-party customer data, detailed product catalogs, and behavioral signals to personalize journeys across digital properties. Adobe describes its Brand Concierge platform, which underpins Coach, as a conversational commerce system focused on brand-approved content rather than open web data, aligning with retailers’ need for control and accuracy. Industry coverage around DICK’S also highlights AI-driven inventory management and RFID automation pilots, showing how front-end conversational AI shopping ties back to operational efficiency. Across categories from grocery to apparel, retailers are moving AI agents from support roles into primary touchpoints, where measurable impacts include higher engagement, better-informed purchases, and clearer pathways to AI-powered sales growth in a competitive landscape.
