According to PYMNTS.com, as 2026 begins, Walmart is touting its AI agent “Marty” as a new advertising assistant within its Walmart Connect platform. The assistant, currently in beta for Sponsored Search campaigns, offers conversational chat help with bidding, keywords, and setup, and Walmart claims 97% of user queries are unique. It will be available to all Sponsored Search advertisers in the Walmart Connect Ad Center later this half. This push into AI-assisted ads follows huge growth for Walmart’s retail media business, which surged 33% year-over-year in the last quarter, accounting for roughly a third of the company’s operating income alongside membership fees. A company survey also found 81% of shoppers had used the related “Sparky” agent to check product specs before buying.
Walmart’s Real Ad Play Is Data, Not Chatbots
Look, the AI chatbot assistant is a nice feature. It probably does make setting up a search campaign easier, especially for smaller brands. But here’s the thing: that’s not the real story. The real story is in that 33% growth figure and the line about retail media making up a third of operating income. Walmart isn’t winning because it built a better chatbot than Google. It’s winning because it has something Google and Meta would kill for: a massive, closed-loop system of first-party data tied directly to in-store and online purchases at a national scale.
Basically, while other ad platforms are struggling with signal loss from privacy changes, Walmart can tell an advertiser, with frightening accuracy, that their digital ad led to a physical sale of a specific product in a specific store. That’s the “structural advantage” PYMNTS mentions, and it’s a monster. The AI assistant is just a friendly front-end to monetize that advantage more efficiently, getting more brands of all sizes to spend money in Walmart’s walled garden.
The “Unique Query” Trap and AI Hype
Now, let’s get skeptical about that 97% “unique queries” stat for a second. It sounds impressive, right? It suggests hyper-personalized use. But what does it actually mean? If I ask “how do I set a bid?” and you ask “how do I set a bid, please?”, those are technically unique queries. An AI system can easily spin that into a compelling marketing soundbite. The real test isn’t uniqueness; it’s whether the assistant provides consistently valuable, accurate recommendations that actually improve campaign performance and ROI. We haven’t seen those numbers yet.
And there’s always a risk with these generative AI agents. They can hallucinate, giving confident but wrong advice on bidding strategies or budget allocation. For a small business, a mistake like that could be costly. Walmart will need serious guardrails and transparency. So, while the promise of simplifying ad buying is huge, the execution needs to be nearly flawless to build trust. This is where most AI projects stumble from “cool demo” to “reliable tool.”
A Fundamental Shift in the Ad Landscape
This isn’t just a Walmart story. It’s a sign of where the entire digital advertising world is pivoting. The power is shifting from pure-play digital platforms (Google, Meta) to retailers with direct consumer relationships (Walmart, Amazon, Target). Why? Because the endpoint of the advertising funnel—the actual sale—is happening on their turf. They control the transaction data.
Walmart talking about exploring “AI-first shopping experiences” with Sparky is a hint at the endgame. Soon, the search for products won’t start on Google. It’ll start in the Walmart app with an AI agent. And if that’s where the search starts, that’s where the ad budget must go. The new AI ad assistant is just the first step in locking that ecosystem down. For brands, the calculus is changing fast. You’re not just buying ads anymore; you’re paying for access to a retailer’s proprietary shopping environment and the rich data within it. That’s a much bigger deal than a helpful chatbot.
