Searching used to be the way we shopped. In today’s world, we just ask.  

The days of scrolling through endless product pages may be close to an end. This fall Walmart is letting shoppers talk their way through the aisles, with the help of ChatGPT as a personal assistant. 

Walmart customers will have the ability to purchase items directly through ChatGPT. Announced on Oct. 14, shareholders found the news enticing, with Walmart’s stock ($WMT) up roughly 5%. 

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that incorporating AI into shoppers’ lives will make grocery trips more convenient. 

“There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual.” 

Whether this experience is truly “native” will be up to shoppers, as adding an extra layer of back-and-forth with AI might seem unnecessary. 

Noah X. Tucker, a Central Connecticut State University student and ChatGPT Plus subscriber, said he feels uncomfortable with AI peaking into his everyday life. 

“I feel like it would be a waste of time. I also don’t want AI knowing what I’m shopping for,” he said. 

With Walmart agreeing to share valuable customer data with OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, privacy concerns are inevitable. Search trends, purchase histories, and browsing patterns will all be available to the AI giant. 

As these systems digest and learn from the shopping habits of millions of Americans, they won’t just understand what we buy, they’ll begin to understand why. 

Once that shift happens, the success of products may depend less on traditional supply and demand curves and more on OpenAI’s secret algorithm. The partnership between Walmart and OpenAI isn’t merely a new checkout channel, it’s a new economic model. 

Granted the obvious privacy concerns and questionable practicality of having AI shop for us, algorithms could very well become the new invisible hand guiding modern consumer behavior.