Walmart operates the world's largest retail supply chain, delivering products to over 4,700 US stores and fulfilling millions of e-commerce orders weekly. The logistics network spans thousands of suppliers, hundreds of distribution centres, and tens of thousands of delivery routes daily.
Route optimization was a major cost driver. Delivery trucks often travelled unnecessary miles due to suboptimal planning, weather disruptions, and last-minute order changes. With millions of deliveries annually, even small percentage improvements translated to tens of millions in savings. Meanwhile, Walmart's procurement team managed thousands of supplier relationships manually — a process that was time-intensive, inconsistent, and reactive rather than strategic.
Walmart deployed multiple AI systems across its supply chain. The route optimization system uses machine learning to plan delivery routes that minimise miles travelled while respecting delivery windows, vehicle capacity, and real-time traffic conditions. The system won the Franz Edelman Award in 2023 for its impact at scale, and Walmart began offering the technology as a SaaS product to other businesses in March 2024.
For supplier negotiations, Walmart partnered with Pactum AI to develop a chatbot that engages suppliers on routine contract renewals, pricing, and payment terms. The bot analyses historical pricing, market conditions, and supplier performance to negotiate autonomously. In pilot, 83% of suppliers found the chatbot easy to use and 75% actually preferred negotiating with the AI over human buyers.
Walmart also invested $520 million in an AI robotics platform for e-commerce fulfilment, and deployed "Wally," a proprietary Merchant AI Agent that identifies inventory imbalances in real time by analysing weather patterns, social media trends, and logistical bottlenecks.
This is an industry case study based on publicly available information. Walmart is not a Pertama Partners client.
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