You'll soon be able to shop at Walmart directly through ChatGPT

[Shawn Knight]

The takeaway: OpenAI rolled out the ability to use third-party apps in ChatGPT just last week, launching with a handful of partners including Spotify, Expedia, and Zillow. The integration has the potential to reshape how the public interacts with AI-based chatbots, and the impact could grow even further following the latest partnership announcement.

Walmart has teamed up with OpenAI and will soon allow customers to shop their store using ChatGPT and its new instant checkout feature. Announced at the end of September, instant checkout is built with Stripe and leverages the agentic commerce protocol to help people make purchases with ChatGPT. Early partners for instant checkout include Etsy and Shopify.

Walmart already uses AI across multiple parts of its business. This past spring, the company announced an AI assistant called Sparky to help shoppers with a variety of tasks in the Walmart app. The ChatGPT integration, however, could have an even bigger impact on how customers shop.

According to the big box retailer, the AI-first shopping experience aims to be proactive rather than reactive – that is, it will learn customers' habits and use that data to plan and predict what a buyer may need next even before they realize it.

Walmart's announcement was light on details. The company did not say when the new shopping experience would go live, if it would launch for everyone all at once or via a staggered rollout, or what regions might have access to it first. Neither Walmart nor OpenAI shared financial terms of the partnership. Presumably, OpenAI would receive a percentage of sales made through ChatGPT which could go a long way in helping the startup become profitable.

As CNBC highlights, consumers are increasingly relying on AI-based tools like ChatGPT for gift ideas and to help find deals. For many, being able to shop and complete a purchase using a chatbot feels like the next logical step in the progression of artificial intelligence as a tool to help make daily life a bit easier.

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You'll soon be able to shop at Walmart directly through ChatGPT

 

[PXAbstraction]

I'll take "Things No One Asked For" for $1,000, Alex.

 

[Dr Roboto]

"it will learn customers' habits and use that data to plan and predict what a buyer may need next even before they realize it"

If the AI in everything is not bad enough, now ChatGPT will just start selling you stuff even if you don't ask for it. I can also only assume that some how every question will end with Walmart is the answer. Ads ruined the Google search engine, now AI. It was only a matter of time. The enshitification continues.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Maybe I'll be able to. Certainly I will not.

 

[wiyosaya]

I can't wait for the stories about people finding stuff in their orders that they never ordered!

 

[VitalyT]

Hey, Chat GPT, I'm on a throne and out of TP, fast-order a roll for me!

 

[NumberNine]

OpenAI smells blood in the water because Google has optimized themselves into an ugly state and OpenAI is ready to become the new gateway for people who access every website by searching for it every time, which is a lot more people than you'd think.

 

[JMGuy]

The enshitification continues.

Hrm.. doesn’t something have to be of value first?

What continues to surprise me is how many otherwise intelligent people willingly buy into this surveillance infrastructure—Alexa, Ring, “smart” TVs, anything cloud-tethered. People invite these systems into their homes and lives, then act surprised when they’re used against them.

Convenience, laziness, apathy, denial… The dystopian future we fear from sci-fi is an opt-in, self-fulfilling prophecy. But that pretty much tracks. Considering the entirety of human history shows people only really change when things hurt enough.

 

[Trapped Nowhere]

How does this benefit society lol. I don't understand the AI integration into everything possible

 

[jrtt0]

Oh yes please empty my wallet without even asking me.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Search engines have been designed to anticipate your "needs" for years now. Devices have been listening to consumers for years and inserting proactive ads into their web browsers for targeted advertising.....

This isn't anything new and it certainly isn't AI.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

How does this benefit society lol. I don't understand the AI integration into everything possible

You severely underestimate the laziness and idiocracy of the average member of the public. You may think you know how bad it is, but I assure you, it gets worse.

Hrm.. doesn’t something have to be of value first?

What continues to surprise me is how many otherwise intelligent people willingly buy into this surveillance infrastructure—Alexa, Ring, “smart” TVs, anything cloud-tethered. People invite these systems into their homes and lives, then act surprised when they’re used against them.

Convenience, laziness, apathy, denial… The dystopian future we fear from sci-fi is an opt-in, self-fulfilling prophecy. But that pretty much tracks. Considering the entirety of human history shows people only really change when things hurt enough.

there are a lot of "well educated" people out there without a single original thought in their heads. You could easily convince these people to walk off a bridge without a second thought. Absolutely no time is spent pondering if a decision is a good idea. Everything is done in the moment, no thought of the future, or ramifications. Everything is a surprise. These people live in a constant state of disaster happening to them. We all know at least a few.

You see it a lot with things like car purchases, where people
-Dont do any research into different models available
-Do no research on common problems
-Have o idea how their cars work
-Dont do pre purchase inspections
-Dont even think about getting pre approved for a loan to negotiate with
-Dont take time to think after a test drive if that car is what they really want
-Fall for marketing and social pressure to buy more vehicle then they really need
-Dont bother maintaining the second most expensive thing they will ever buy.

They do the same thing with homes, computers, phones, insurance, time shares, and all other sorts of money pits. It's incredibly frustrating to watch, since those of us with self control sit there watching the market get driven nuts by uninformed FOMO. I'm still pissed the entire micro truck market got BTFO'd by people insisting they need F-150s and tahoes for their one(1) child to be "safe". Same reason I cant buy a new small wagon.

These people willingly allow "smart" devices to rule their lives and make decisions for them, because when the magic box that is technology appears in front of them all critical thinking just stops.