- Walmart uses artificial intelligence to automate negotiations with suppliers through a chatbot developed by Pactum AI.
- Pactum’s software has reduced negotiation times from weeks to days and has achieved successful deals with almost 70% of the vendors contacted, with an average savings of 3%.
- Walmart has been exploring various artificial intelligence tools in recent years as part of its search for new ways to save time and budget on its corporate team, in collaboration with Microsoft.
When ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence-based chatbots draw the world’s attention for their ability to write, for example, poems, Walmart is using these kinds of developments for more pragmatic purposes: Negotiate price and sales conditions with some of your suppliers.
Indeed, as published Bloomberg This Wednesday, April 26, Walmart uses a chatbot developed by Pactum AI whose software helps large companies automate negotiation processes with input suppliers.
Walmart uploads budgets and product needs to the chatbot and the AI, not a human-powered purchasing team, contacts the sellers.
Darren Carithers, Walmart’s head of International Operations, told Bloomberg that the company sets the requirements and then the software “tells us the result.”
According to Carithers, for now, Pactum’s software is used for purchases that Walmart uses for its operation and not for purchasing products that are later sold in its stores.
He also said that the system It has significantly reduced the negotiation times for each agreement, “from weeks to days.”
According to Walmart data, the AI system achieved successful deals with nearly 70 percent of the suppliers contacted, with an average savings of 3 percent compared to contracts handled by humans.
Walmart has been using the program since 2021.
Walmart and artificial intelligence
Walmart was the first client of Pactum and one of the few major retailers in the US market to add artificial intelligence to its negotiation process with suppliers.
Same as Walmart Amazon uses artificial intelligence to automate some deals with brands like Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.
targetMeanwhile, another of the major players in the sector in the United States, does not use AI-based chatbots to negotiate with suppliers.
Pactum’s chatbot is just one of many AI tools Walmart has been exploring in recent years looking for new ways to save time and budget for its corporate team.
five years ago, Walmart has partnered with Microsoft to work on AI and other strategic technologies.
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