Remember when making inventory decisions felt like solving a Rubik's cube blindfolded? That was Walmart's reality before 2024. Their merchants were drowning in spreadsheets, developers were coding the same solutions across different teams, and getting quick answers to business questions was about as easy as teaching a tiger to tango.

Enter Wally, Walmart's custom-built generative AI assistant that's become the retail giant's secret weapon. Think of it as having thousands of retail experts, data scientists, and developers available 24/7 at the click of a button.

Wally isn't your average chatbot. Built on a custom generative AI foundation with a semantic layer that understands "retail speak," it integrates seamlessly with Walmart's vast data ecosystem. Imagine a digital brain that can instantly connect:

• Inventory levels in Sacramento
• Supplier capacity in Shanghai
• Consumer trends in Miami
• Custom generative AI foundation with retail-specific semantic layer

Walmart's journey had its share of "learning opportunities" (corporate speak for "oops" moments):

• Integrating decades of legacy systems - a nightmare
• Getting veteran merchants to trust an AI - challenge accepted
• Scaling across global operations - late-night calls with teams across time zones

Here's what has Walmart's executives doing victory dances:

• 4 million developer hours saved annually (equivalent to 2,000 extra developers)
• Merchant insight generation time cut from hours to seconds
• Sourcing decisions that used to take days now happen in minutes
• ROI that has the board very, very happy

🐯 Tiger Takeaway:

The secret sauce isn't just the AI—it's how Walmart transformed their entire decision-making culture around it. For retail execs looking to follow suit:

• Start with data integration or prepare for headaches
• Roll out in phases (Walmart's "learn from the few, apply to the many" approach)
• Invest heavily in user training—AI is only as good as the humans using it
• Focus on building trust in AI tools through small wins before going big

Tool Spotlight: Realgram AI

Picture this: You walk into your store, and every display is perfectly optimized for your local market—automatically. That's Realgram AI's promise, and they're delivering with 85% time savings in planogram creation. It's like having a visual merchandising genius working 24/7 for every store in your network.

The Next Big Thing: Personalized Visual Merchandising

The numbers are in, and they're staggering:

• 69% of major retailers have embraced personalized visual merchandising
• 40% boost in customer engagement
• 74.7% increase in repeat purchases

If your stores still have one-size-fits-all layouts, you're leaving money on the table.

The future of retail talent isn't about replacing humans with AI—it's about creating super-powered teams that leverage both. Smart retailers are upskilling their teams with hybrid learning:

• Bite-sized microlearning modules
• Hands-on practice with real store data
• AI-powered learning assistants for 24/7 support

The Global Skill Development Council's new Retail AI Certification is leading the charge, blending practical modules with mentored projects tailored for retail. Your investment in AI education today is your competitive edge tomorrow.