Walmart expands Sparky with visual search and cart building — holiday shopping gets AI assist

Context

Walmart is adding visual recognition and automated cart generation to Sparky, its AI shopping assistant, ahead of the holiday season. The features aim to shorten the path from inspiration to checkout across both its online store and physical locations. Retail and ecommerce marketers should watch how retailer-owned assistants start capturing discovery and basket-building before shoppers reach third-party channels.