Against the backdrop of a challenging global economic environment and lingering trade friction clouds, the world's largest retailers are continuously increasing their investment in artificial intelligence (AI). Walmart and Target both announced expanded AI-related plans and elaborated on their potential benefits during their latest quarterly earnings calls. The two companies are leveraging their years of accumulated technology infrastructure to gradually implement AI applications.

Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said during the earnings call on Thursday (August 21): "Our enthusiasm for how AI can help us better serve customers and members, improve the associate experience, and boost productivity continues to grow." Earlier this summer, Walmart expanded its AI leadership team and launched a streamlined agent strategy focused on four major "super agents." McMillon noted that the company had not made structural adjustments to roles reporting to the CEO for years, but has now established dedicated positions specifically to accelerate AI initiatives.

Walmart plans to continue deepening its AI agent strategy, upgrading its customer-facing AI assistant Sparky on one hand, and optimizing associate workflows on the other. McMillon cited an example: "Among the other super agents we are building, one is designed specifically for associates, integrating scheduling, sales data, and more into a single interface. This is just the beginning of AI deployment."

However, McMillon also candidly acknowledged that AI efforts are still in the early stages and have not yet had a significant impact on revenue. For the quarter ending August 1, Walmart's revenue grew 4.8% year-over-year to $177.4 billion. Despite tariff pressures, the company raised its guidance for the third quarter and the full fiscal year.

In contrast, Target's quarterly performance was slightly less impressive, but the company similarly emphasized the value of AI in improving customer experience and workflows. Michael Fiddelke, current Chief Operating Officer who will assume the CEO role in February next year, said during the Q2 2025 earnings call on Wednesday (August 20): "By leveraging AI and other tools, our teams are able to build updated forecasts more accurately while reducing production time. We are investing in more comprehensive AI deployment to free up our team members, giving them more time to 'delight our guests.'"

Fiddelke revealed that since the last earnings call, the company has deployed more than 10,000 new AI licenses across its teams and is focusing on high-value technology projects. He emphasized: "We are also enhancing the technology and data embedding capabilities within our teams, and rapidly evaluating every technology initiative to determine which ones offer the highest returns and are most critical, so we can adjust resources accordingly."

Target's AI deployment is accelerating after completing a decade-long cloud migration journey and conducting multiple generative AI experiments. The company plans to continue investing in technology projects to leverage its business portfolio to mitigate challenges such as declining customer sentiment and weak sales. Target reiterated its expectation of a low single-digit decline in sales for the current fiscal year, as it continues to work through a prolonged operational downturn. For the quarter ending August 2, net sales edged down 0.9% year-over-year, and net profit also declined.