Walmart Plots to Jump Amazon in the AI Checkout By Handing Google’s Gemini the Credit Card

While you were busy watching Jordan Love and the Packers commit a felony of a choke job against the Bears… Walmart was busy teaming up with Google to plug its entire shopping universe straight into Google’s AI assistant, Gemini… meaning shoppers will soon be able to discover and buy products without ever doing the classic “open 12 tabs, forget why you’re here, buy nothing” routine. 

Yes, this is the same store that just announced they’re locking up deodorant and testing employee body cams to lessen thievery.

(Source: CNBC)

The idea is pretty straightforward. Wally World wants Google's AI to help nudge you toward buying more stuff. Instead of starting on Walmart’s app or website, you start inside Gemini (where they are absolutely not collecting your data). You ask what you need. The AI suggests options. Walmart supplies the goods. Your checking account absorbs the damage quietly. 

The experience will include products from both Walmart and Sam’s Club, so even bulk shoppers can now outsource their decision-making to a chatbot that never asks follow-up questions about why you need 48 cans of chili.

The partnership was announced on stage at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York, with Walmart’s incoming CEO John Furner standing next to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and saying all the right future-facing things. 

They also skipped over minor details like when this actually launches or what it costs, opting instead to lean hard into “agent-led commerce,” which sounds important and futuristic and absolutely not like something regular humans say out loud.

This also isn’t Walmart’s first AI fling. Back in October, the retailer struck a deal with OpenAI that lets shoppers buy items directly through ChatGPT using a feature called Instant Checkout.

Walmart even has its own AI assistant already, a yellow smiley-faced helper inside the Walmart app called Sparky. Unfortunately for Sparky, it now has to compete with Google’s brain and OpenAI’s brain at the same time, which feels like bringing a plastic spork to a knife fight.

(Source: Walmart)

Of course, what Walmart actually cares about here isn’t novelty… it’s control over where shopping starts. More people are turning to AI chatbots for inspiration, price checks, and “what should I buy so my life doesn’t fall apart” advice. If shopping begins inside AI, then Walmart wants to be the retailer those AIs recommend before Amazon even gets a whiff.

Walmart executives have framed this shift as the next big evolution in retail, while Google is pitching it as an open standard for “agentic commerce,” which sounds friendly and collaborative right up until everyone starts fighting over who owns the checkout button.

There’s also the uncomfortable workforce angle hanging in the background. Walmart is the largest private employer in the U.S., and leadership hasn’t exactly been shy about AI’s impact on jobs. Outgoing CEO Doug McMillon has already said AI will change every role at the company. Some jobs get easier. Some get stranger. Some quietly disappear while a calm, polite robot keeps working holidays without complaining.

(Source: New York Post)

This is also very on brand for Walmart. Last year, they more or less copied Target’s strategy, caught heat for it, and then watched it work way better than anyone expected. So now they’re doing it again… only this time they’re copying the future.

This wasn’t a launch. It was a positioning move. Walmart planting its flag next to the algorithms that decide where money flows next. Because if shopping is about to be outsourced to AI agents… Walmart has zero intention of being left on read.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Google and Amazon as mentioned in the article.