Americans like to shop. For a lot of consumers, the act of browsing and filling a digital or physical cart isn’t a point of friction but a way of life \u2014 just ask Costco influencers. <\/p>\n
But in the event that more people delegate their shopping to AI agents,<\/a> Walmart, and its open embrace of AI partnerships, stands to win. <\/p>\n That’s the takeaway in a new note by Bank of America analysts led by Christopher Nardone, published Monday. They cite Walmart’s integration with multiple AI ecosystems; the development of the retailer’s own shopping assistant named “Sparky”; and its partnerships with other agents, including Meta’s Muse, as reasons for Walmart’s solid positioning. <\/p>\n Walmart is among the key corporate players partnering with Muse<\/a>, including Best Buy (BBY<\/a>) and Ulta (ULTA<\/a>). These companies are attempting to embrace new modes of digital commerce. <\/p>\n Other retailers have taken an antagonistic approach<\/a>, choosing to block Muse from interacting with their commercial portals. No doubt there are a number of reasons to block largely untested agents from inserting themselves into your business funnel. But perhaps the most obvious is to prevent another tech platform from becoming a powerful middleman. <\/p>\n 118.68 -0.02 (-0.02%) <\/p>\n As of 11:24:08 AM EDT. Market Open. <\/p>\n Amazon is perhaps the most notable example. The e-commerce giant has blocked Muse from making purchases on its site and prohibits other companies from deploying automated tools to shop. <\/p>\n But Amazon’s loss could be Walmart’s gain<\/a>. While Amazon may not be losing much in the way of actual sales \u2014 since most people are using AI tools to research rather than to swipe the credit card, so to speak \u2014 Walmart is trying to get in early, while habits are still forming. <\/p>\n Still, Walmart’s management team, like everyone else, can’t say for certain how popular shopping agents will become. And there are other business implications to consider if agents disrupt how people shop. As Nardone noted, if screenless computers are the ones checking out, it remains unclear what happens to the advertising landscape, a business increasingly important to Walmart itself. <\/p>\n Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on X @hshaban<\/a>. <\/p>\n Click here for the latest technology news that will impact the stock market<\/a> <\/p>\n Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance<\/a> <\/p>\n