Before Walmart launched its plan to roll out AI tools to2 million employeesthe retail giant's supply chain team was already relying on the technology to help goods reach where they need to be.

Indira Uppuluri, senior vice president of supply chain technology at Walmart, told CIO Dive that predictive models have always had a place in the supply chain industry. But she noted that the amount of data now available to the team and the scale of AI tools provide stronger navigation signals in a challenging environment—Uppuluri said, "This is where the industry is headed."

Uppuluri said data on weather patterns and customer purchase history, combined with machine learning, has significantly improved the level of insights the supply chain technology team can provide.

She added that Walmart has access to popular large language models and open-source models in the enterprise world. The data science and optimization team also builds custom AI tools to meet business needs and goals.

Walmart partners with OpenAI and Google to offer role-specific AI certifications through its employee-facing platform Squiggly, which also encourages employees to build custom tools themselves.

The retailer's supply chain technology team manages its nodes—the points where goods are received, processed, stored, or shipped—as well as its fulfillment engine, which handles inventory sourcing and refines the standards for delivering goods to customers.

The team also manages the technology that guides inbound, outbound, and middle-mile transportation. This challenge is intensifying as same-day delivery services become more common among large retailers. Walmart's Sam's Club in Aprillaunched a 1-hour delivery service。

Agentic AI and digital twins

To optimize all the dynamic processes behind product management, Uppuluri said her team uses AI models and agents.

Instead of examining individual nodes one by one, employees can use agents to understand how the company's resources are being utilized overall, and how to best allocate resources or fix bottlenecks.

"Category, speed, and cost are the three elements we try to balance and optimize through the supply chain," she added.

So far, the turmoil in 2026 caused by tariffs and geopolitical issues has made it adifficult year。Extreme weatheror environmental disruptions could intensify this challenge.

Supply chain management is largely about preparing for and reacting to events that hinder the flow of goods. Uppuluri said sometimes the team can anticipate disruptions such as weather, but often it cannot.

The same internal platform that helps goods flow efficiently also helps Walmart prepare for rapid and unpredictable changes. Uppuluri's team uses modeling tools and digital twin technology to test how the network responds to facility closures, transportation delays, or sudden shifts in customer demand. The transportation team uses a virtual replica of the company's logistics network to simulate how goods move through the supply chain under stress scenarios.

"If a fire suddenly breaks out somewhere, how do you respond quickly?" she asked. "The backend systems use data to generate actionable plans, and employees can adopt and execute those recommendations."

Uppuluri said the supply chain industry has evolved alongside AI—from stochastic models, to large language models, and now to AI agents and agentic workflows. The mix of technologies they use will continue to evolve over time.

"The supply chain is evolving, and the models behind it are evolving in tandem," Uppuluri said.

Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that Uppuluri's team can anticipate disruptions such as weather.