Merchandising Retail has evolved beyond just online and in-store shopping, or even a mix of both. It now involves reaching customers in new environments with new experiences. Walmart has unveiled its strategy to accelerate adaptive retail, focused on creating hyper- personalized, convenient and engaging shopping experiences. The company is leveraging proprietary AI, genAI, augmented reality (AR) and immersive commerce platforms across its apps and virtual environments. Key initiatives include the development of Wallaby, a series of retail-specific LLMs trained with decades of Walmart data to create highly contextual and tailored customer interactions.16 Walmart’s Content Decision Platform uses AI and genAI to create personalized shopping experiences on walmart.com, predicting the type of content customers would like to see and creating unique homepages for each shopper. This technology will be launched in the US by the end of next year and expanded to Canada and Mexico. To meet shoppers where they are and as they are engaged in activities like gaming, Walmart has created an AR platform named Retina, which uses AI, genAI and automation to generate thousands of 3D assets and immersive commerce APIs. These technologies allow Walmart to extend its shopping experience into new virtual social spaces, creating new revenue opportunities.17 AI technologies are also driving transformative shifts in e-commerce and search, particularly for small businesses. Recently, Alibaba Group unveiled Accio, a genAI-powered search engine for Europe and the Americas, challenging traditional search engines by shifting from keyword-based to intent-driven, contextual results. Leveraging Alibaba’s proprietary LLM (Tongyi Qianwen), Accio delivers more interactive and tailored results, raising expectations for AI features and creating new monetization opportunities. With a few text or image prompts, it enables businesses to optimize sourcing, analyse consumer trends (including product popularity) and project profits, without requiring in-house AI capabilities, democratizing access to cutting-edge technology. The tool has demonstrated a 40% increase in purchase intent compared to traditional methods.18 Customer service On the field operations front, Ecolab, which offers water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services, is actively transforming its field service operations using AI, helping to improve efficiency for its over 25,000 field service agents deployed globally. By harnessing AI, Ecolab aims to streamline onboarding, reduce training time and minimize manual troubleshooting, allowing associates to focus on higher-value tasks. As Sam Hsu, Ecolab’s Executive Vice-President of Strategic Planning, noted, “AI can help technicians address customer issues independently without escalation to higher- level support.” The impact includes faster issue resolution, increased service coverage and improved workforce retention from AI-driven job satisfaction.19 All these examples demonstrate the power of advanced technologies in use today. However, the industry is rapidly entering a new and even more exciting stage as it strives to stay apace with the technology’s expanding capabilities. The next chapter reviews the AI evolution to date – and previews what’s emerging. AI technologies are driving transformative shifts in e-commerce and search, particularly for small businesses with a genAI-powered search engine, demonstrating a 40% increase in purchase intent. Transforming Consumer Industries in the Age of AI 12

Transforming Consumer Industries in the Age of AI 2025