Retail AI Agents Move from Backroom to Frontline
Retail AI agents are rapidly shifting from behind-the-scenes tools into direct customer-facing roles, redefining what an AI-powered retail experience looks like. Instead of simply forecasting demand or routing deliveries, retailers are deploying conversational AI shopping assistants inside apps, websites, and even stores. These systems blend product catalogs, behavioral data, and real-time context to deliver personalized shopping experiences at scale, responding in natural language and adapting as shoppers share more about their needs. For retailers, this evolution is about more than novelty. Customer engagement AI is becoming a strategic lever to lift average order value, deepen loyalty, and streamline operations. As agentic AI gains sophistication, it can orchestrate complex shopping journeys—from discovery and education to purchase and fulfillment—while feeding data back into supply chain and advertising systems. Walmart’s Sparky and DICK’S Sporting Goods’ Coach illustrate how leading brands are turning this vision into measurable outcomes.
Inside Walmart’s Sparky: An AI Shopping Assistant That Lifts Basket Size
Walmart’s Sparky, a retail AI agent embedded across its ecommerce site, mobile app, and stores, is at the center of the company’s push to become “AI native.” CEO John Furner credits Sparky with helping customers reorder routine items, shop in-store with digital support, and even interact in Spanish. The AI shopping assistant is not just popular; weekly active users more than doubled in the latest quarter, while Walmart reports a 40% improvement this year in Sparky’s intelligence and response quality. Crucially, Sparky users exhibit an average order value about 35% higher than non-users, underscoring direct sales impact. According to Walmart U.S. CEO David Guggina, Sparky has evolved from a tool for general merchandise discovery into an engine for everyday essentials like food and consumables. Features such as personalized replenishment, meal planning, and recommendations tuned to inventory, price, and delivery speed have helped units purchased through Sparky more than quadruple since the previous fiscal quarter.
AI-Powered Supply Chain and Advertising Give Walmart an Edge
Beyond customer-facing conversations, Walmart is weaving AI deeply into its supply chain and advertising systems to reinforce its AI-powered retail experience. Furner highlights how AI helps position inventory more intelligently, make faster fulfillment decisions, and serve customers “in real time.” These capabilities sit atop years of investment in data and logistics, enabling Sparky’s recommendations to reflect what is actually in stock, where, and how quickly it can be delivered. On the marketing side, chief financial officer John David Rainey notes that AI tools now help advertisers dynamically adjust content mixes and extend reach, including via Vizio’s connected platform. This has contributed to a 37% increase in global advertising revenue in the latest fiscal quarter, with 36% growth in the U.S. Advertising, together with the marketplace business and ecommerce, is now one of the main engines of Walmart’s online sales growth, showing how AI can synchronize operations from product to promotion.
DICK’S Sporting Goods Launches Coach: A Digital AI Coach for Athletes
DICK’S Sporting Goods is taking a different but complementary approach with Coach by DICK’S, an agentic AI-powered conversational experience built into its mobile app. Designed as more than a shopping bot, Coach acts as a digital guide throughout an athlete’s sports journey, providing tailored recommendations, training guidance, and product education based on each user’s sport, goals, and preferences. Powered by Adobe’s Brand Concierge and DICK’S proprietary content, the system draws on trusted brand-approved information rather than open web data, ensuring consistent guidance. Emily Silver, who oversees marketing, ecommerce, and athlete experience, says Coach scales the expertise of in-store associates into a seamless, immersive digital environment. CTO Vlad Rak emphasizes that the platform merges deep product knowledge with conversational AI to offer real-time support, including “Pro Tips” and equipment guidance. The rollout begins in June, with DICK’S planning to expand capabilities over time as the AI learns from athlete interactions.
From Conversational Commerce to Agentic Retail Systems
Coach by DICK’S illustrates a broader shift toward customer engagement AI and agentic commerce across retail. The assistant supports natural-language conversations and adapts to an athlete’s skill level and behavior, moving beyond transactional Q&A to long-term, context-aware guidance. This approach aligns with DICK’S wider technology strategy, which includes AI-driven inventory management and RFID-based automation, and its investment in omni-channel systems and digital engagement. Industry-wide, retailers are increasingly combining first-party customer data, product catalogs, and behavioral signals to power AI shopping assistants that personalize recommendations, answer complex questions, and automate parts of product discovery. Agentic retail systems can now orchestrate steps like narrowing options, scheduling services, or bundling complementary items without constant human intervention. Together, Walmart’s Sparky and DICK’S Coach show how retail AI agents can simultaneously elevate customer experience, increase average order value and units sold, and improve operational efficiency from the front end to the supply chain.
