How Walmart, Target, and more retailers are infusing AI into their shopping experiences | Business Insider

Target is among the major retailers introducing AI shopping tools.Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

• Major retailers, such as Walmart and Target, are integrating AI into their shopping experiences.
• Retailers have partnered with AI companies, such as OpenAI, and developed their own tools.
• AI assistants can help with product recommendations, checkout, and customer service.

Retail is becoming a major battleground in the artificial intelligence arms race.

Since the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022, AI chatbots have had a meteoric rise in popularity. This year, more major retailers got in on the hype, unveiling plans to offer AI tools that can make shopping easier for consumers.

They’re investing time and money in partnering with AI companies like ChatGPT maker OpenAI, or building their own large language models to create shopping assistants or simplify the checkout process.

Shoppers are already using AI. In an October survey from PwC, more than half of the respondents said they planned to use AI for price checks, trip planning, or writing messages this holiday season.

And the retailers aren’t the only ones building AI-powered shopping experiences. OpenAI is bringing e-commerce to ChatGPT with its Instant Checkout feature, where users search and purchase items from some retail partners right in their chats.

Here’s what seven major retailers have said publicly about how they’re using AI to transform the way we shop.

Walmart

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Walmart introduced the world to its AI shopping assistant, Sparky, in June. Shoppers can use the chatbot in the Walmart app to find products, read reviews, and receive personalized purchase recommendations.

The retail giant rolled out additional features in the app for the holiday season, including help with party planning, a 3D showroom, and audio product descriptions and reviews.

Walmart also said in October that it and sister company Sam’s Club would be partnering with OpenAI. The deal is supposed to enable customers to shop through ChatGPT using the platform’s Instant Checkout feature.

Target

Target said it was laying off around 1,000 corporate employees.Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

Target and OpenAI unveiled in November that a custom Target app would be coming to ChatGPT, rolling out in beta later that month. With this feature, shoppers can purchase multiple items in a single transaction, shop for fresh food, and select their preferred shipping method, the companies said.

“Our goal is simple: make every interaction feel as natural, helpful, and inspiring as chatting with a friend,” Prat Vemana, executive vice president and chief information and product officer at Target, said in a statement when the OpenAI partnership was announced.

Target’s app also features its own AI-powered tools, including one that enables users to scan their written grocery list and have the items automatically added to their cart. The retail giant launched a holiday-themed AI shopping assistant that suggests gift ideas based on user prompts.

Amazon

The Amazon logo on the façade of Amazon Germany’s headquarters in Parkstadt Schwabing in Munich.Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images

Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant Rufus is growing. Rufus had over 250 million customers this year, with monthly users up 140% year-over-year, CEO Andy Jassy told analysts in October.

The AI shopping assistant has been around since 2024, offering consumers personalized product recommendations. Rufus generally appears alongside search results as a panel where users can choose from shopping-related prompts or ask their own questions to find deals on the platform.

“Our goal is to save customers time and money by making online shopping even simpler with real-time information and insights of experts,” said Rajiv Mehta, vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, in a November press release.

eBay

Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Online marketplace eBay unveiled an AI-powered shopping agent in May that would personalize the shopping experience. The company said that the shopping agent would show up for customers throughout their shopping journey, either by reacting to a request or through in-line messaging on the page a user is visiting.

“Our AI shopping agent has given buyers a new way to shop across our inventory, with personalized product picks and expert guidance based on their individual shopping preferences,” CEO Jamie Iannone said on the company’s October earnings call.

He said the company built its large language models in-house to perform specific shopping agent tasks, and it’s been fine-tuning them. It’s “poised to gradually bring agentic capabilities into the core of eBay’s business through the main search experience over the coming quarters,” Iannone said.

Home Depot

Home Depot’s weak quarter shows even financially stable Americans are tightening their spending.Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Home Depot created an AI tool, called Blueprint Takeoffs, for professional builders, renovators, and remodelers, a core pillar of the retailer’s customer base.

The tool is named after takeoffs, which are material lists and estimates that can be time-consuming for workers to make themselves.

Home Depot said the tool can handle tasks for a single-family project that should take weeks within a few days.

“The speed and accuracy of the Blueprint Takeoffs tool give Pros more time to focus on what matters most: serving their customers and growing their businesses,” said Mike Rowe, executive vice president of Home Depot’s pro business, when Blueprint Takeoffs was announced in November.

Lowe’s

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Lowe’s introduced Mylow, an AI-powered virtual home improvement assistant made in collaboration with OpenAI, in March. The retailer said it provides the expertise of a Lowe’s associate at customers’ fingertips.

The assistant was designed to provide step-by-step instructions for DIY projects, offer design inspiration, and help locate specific products at Lowe’s.

“Our virtual assistants, Mylow and Mylow Companion, which are built on an OpenAI platform, are answering nearly 1 million questions a month about everything from product specs to project know-how to the status of a customer order,” CEO Marvin Ellison told analysts in November.

Abercrombie & Fitch

Plexi Images/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Abercrombie & Fitch is in the midst of a revival, and the company said in a November earnings call that it’s investing in AI to enhance the customer journey.

It recently started using AI agents in customer service, for example.

The company is also kicking off in November a partnership with PayPal that it said will enable customers to browse the retailer’s catalog and complete transactions within their AI conversations on AI answer engines like Perplexity. Abercrombie & Fitch is one of several retailers that will be integrated into the ecosystem.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Source: How Walmart, Target, and more retailers are infusing AI into their shopping experiences

Billionaire Donors Withholding Cash From Democrat Party – Slam Weak DNC as ‘Ineffectual’ | The Gateway Pundit

Billionaire Donors Withholding Cash From Democrat Party – Slam Weak DNC as ‘Ineffectual’

Ken Martin / Screenshot ABC1

The Democrat Party has a serious cash flow problem.

Last week, it was revealed that the party may have to borrow money just to keep the lights on. Leadership is plagued by infighting and chaos. David Hogg’s brief tenure as vice chair of the DNC caused weeks of distraction when they should have been fundraising and trying to register voters.

Now it is being reported that some of their biggest donors are withholding cash from the party because they feel it’s weak and ineffectual.

From the New York Post:

Billionaire Dem donors Bloomberg, Diller distance from ‘ineffectual’ DNC — say they won’t fork over more cash for now

Billionaire Dem donors including Barry Diller and Michael Bloomberg are refusing to fork over more cash for now to the party’s main fundraising committee because there’s now a “broad consensus” it’s “ineffectual,’’ sources said.

The Democratic National Committee has been plagued by infighting and defections as the party remains virtually leaderless since President Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election — prompting some once-reliable and deep-pocketed donors to yank funding for the time being.

“For a variety of reasons, I have no intention of donating to the DNC,” media mogul Diller told The Post last week.

Diller, chairman of such holdings as the Internet and media behemoth IAC, seethed in his just-released memoir “Who Knew” that former President Joe Biden and his administration used a bait-and-switch tactic when it came to his promise of restoring the “soul of the nation.”

Mark Halperin, Sean Spicer, and Dan Turrentine recently discussed the problems with the current leadership at the DNC. Watch:

The new chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, is being called “weak,” “whiny” and “invisible,” according to Politico, and a New York Times piece says the DNC is “in chaos and desperate for cash.” The Times piece, says @SeanSpicer, “was brutal. The number of… pic.twitter.com/OSUvXvBlvI

— 2WAY (@2waytvapp) June 20, 2025

It’s very easy to understand why donors aren’t giving money to the DNC. They blew through more than two-billion dollars last fall and rather than winning, various people just gobbled up the cash to enrich themselves.

The post Billionaire Donors Withholding Cash From Democrat Party – Slam Weak DNC as ‘Ineffectual’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

10 Signs Of The Tremendous Economic Suffering That Is Quickly Spreading All Around Us | The Economic Collapse

I am so tired of hearing that “everything is fine” when everything is most certainly not fine.  Every day, I hear from people that are really suffering in this harsh economic environment.  Some can’t find work, others are stressed out of their minds because they can’t make ends meet, and there are some that are even on the verge of losing everything.  Because they are constantly being told that the economy is in good shape, many of them have been convinced that the suffering that they are going through is their fault.  Of course it isn’t their fault.  Economic conditions have been getting worse for the bottom 90 percent for many years, and that is the primary reason why the Democrats lost the election last November.  If economic conditions were improving, they probably would have won that election.  What we are facing is truly a historic crisis, and it is time to admit the truth.  The following are 10 signs of the tremendous economic suffering that is quickly spreading all around us…

#1 Homelessness in the U.S. is at the highest level ever recorded, and the state of California is leading the way…

Californians have consistently cited homelessness as a top issue facing the state, and in 2024, homelessness reached record highs. Of the nation’s 771,500 people experiencing homelessness, over 187,000 (24%) were in California. Two in three were unsheltered, accounting for almost half of the country’s unsheltered population.

#2 According to a report that was recently published by CBS News, the “true rate” of unemployment in the United States was 24.3 percent in April…

But another indicator suggests those pieces of government data may be painting an overly rosy picture of the economy, with a recent report from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) finding the “true rate” of unemployment stood at 24.3% in April, up slightly from 24% in March, while the official Bureau of Labor Statistics rate remained unchanged at 4.2% over the same period.

LISEP’s measure encompasses not only unemployed workers, but also people who are looking for work but can’t find full-time employment, as well as those stuck in poverty-wage jobs. By tracking functionally unemployed workers, the measure seeks to capture labor market nuances that other economic indicators miss, such as Americans who are left behind during periods of economic expansion.

#3 Due to current economic conditions, almost a quarter of the U.S. population is “canceling plans to make a major purchase”…

Nearly one in four U.S. residents are canceling plans to make a major purchase, such as a home or a car, because of President Trump’s new tariff policies. An additional one in three (32%) are delaying plans to make a major purchase.

That’s according to a Redfin-commissioned survey conducted by Ipsos between April 10-14, 2025. The nationally representative survey was fielded to 1,004 U.S. adults.

#4 Meat prices are soaring and the size of the U.S. cattle herd has fallen to a level that we have not witnessed since the 1950s…

“The number of head of cattle in the United States is at a low really not seen since the 1950s,” said Nate Rempe, president and CEO of Omaha Steaks, on “Mornings with Maria.”

“That supply pressure is really putting a lot of upward pressure on price, especially as demand is still so strong in the U.S.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meat prices have increased year-over-year, with steak up 7%, ground beef 10%, chicken nearly 3% and ham over 4%. Rempe believes the issue goes beyond tariffs and trade policy.

#5 Restaurants that were once thriving are being boarded up all over the country.  In fact, Hooters suddenly shut down 30 locations yesterday…

Restaurant chain Hooters abruptly closed over 30 locations across multiple states June 4.

Hooters said in a statement to USA TODAY that the closed stores were company owned and called the closures a “difficult decision.”

“Hooters will be well-positioned to continue our iconic legacy under a pure franchise business model,” the company said. “We are committed to supporting our impacted team members throughout this process and are incredibly grateful to our valued customers for their loyalty and dedication to the Hooters brand.”

#6 Major employers from coast to coast continue to conduct mass layoffs.  For example, Procter & Gamble just announced that 7,000 of their employees will soon be hitting the bricks…

Procter & Gamble said Thursday it will cut 7,000 jobs over the next two years, or about 15% of its non-manufacturing workforce.

In a statement, the consumer products giant said it wants to boost productivity and cut costs as it competes in what the company describes as an “increasingly challenging environment.”

#7 You know that things are bad when even Walmart is conducting layoffs…

It isn’t just social media giants and life sciences startups laying off tech workers in the Bay Area. Walmart, the country’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, is now cutting up to 106 staffers of its own.

The Arkansas-headquartered giant revealed the layoffs in a May 23 WARN document filed with California officials, as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, writing that some of the 106 office workers who report to San Bruno offices could relocate or find new work at Walmart, but for those who don’t, the layoffs will be permanent. Engineers and data scientists were listed in the document among the cuts, as were various managers in finance, marketing, creative and operations.

#8 “Quiet firing” has become a major trend in this nation.  In fact, one recent survey discovered that 53 percent of U.S. companies “are using quiet firing to push employees out in 2025″…

Companies are “quiet firing” employees to trim staff without having to make severance payouts or as a way to tamp down negative press or public perceptions associated with layoffs.

That’s according to a recent ResumeTemplates survey of 1,128 business leaders, which found that 53% of companies are using quiet firing to push employees out in 2025. Quiet firing refers to the act of intentionally creating an unfavorable work environment to compel employees to leave their jobs rather than formally firing them or issuing layoffs.

#9 The housing market continues to be in a depressed state.  At this point, the total dollar amount of unsold homes on the market is at the highest level ever…

More than $330 billion worth of listings have been sitting on the market for 60 days or longer. Rising inventory and slow homebuying demand is pushing up the total dollar amount of home listings, and will push down home-sale prices by the end of the year.

There’s a total of $698 billion worth of homes for sale in the U.S., up 20.3% from a year ago and the highest dollar amount ever.

#10 According to one recent survey, 70 percent of Americans are the most financially stressed that they have ever been in their entire lives.

When 70 percent of your population is the most financially stressed that they have ever been, you have a major crisis on your hands.

Nobody can deny this.

So why does the media continue to tell us that everything is just fine?

It simply is not true.

If we stay on the path that we are currently on, things are going to get a lot worse.

The economic suffering that we are witnessing now will be absolutely dwarfed by the economic suffering that is coming if we do not reverse course.

Unfortunately, for now the charade continues…

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post 10 Signs Of The Tremendous Economic Suffering That Is Quickly Spreading All Around Us appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Diet Coke Truck Seen Backing Up To White House Doors | Babylon Bee

WASHINTON, D.C. — Change was in the air today as a Diet Coke truck was seen pulling up to the White House to deliver a presidential-sized load of Diet Coke for incoming President Donald Trump.

White House staff received the enormous delivery of Diet Coke and placed the thousands of cans in the newly constructed climate-controlled White House Diet Coke cellar. Trump reportedly reviewed the delivery and gave his thumbs-up to the setup.

“These cans will help me make America great again,” Trump said. “I love Diet Coke. Not Pepsi though, not a Pepsi drinker. Other people like Pepsi but not me, no Pepsi here.”

Whitehouse officials said the delivery would be sufficient to get Trump through at least the first two weeks of his presidency. The delivery truck was said to be scheduled to refill the cellar at least once a month over the course of Trump’s entire presidency.

“The incoming administration has laid out a strong Diet Coke agenda and we’re to help the president execute his vision,” incoming Secretary of Caffeinated Beverages Micheal Strong told the press. “I’m here to ensure the free flow of Diet Coke during the Trump Administration.”

Trump administration insiders said the newly sworn-in president was also expected to sign an executive order to name Diet Coke the official beverage of the United States.

At publishing time, unconfirmed reports indicated a semi-truck full of McDonald’s Big Macs was reportedly en route to the White House.

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https://babylonbee.com/news/diet-coke-truck-seen-backing-up-to-white-house-doors/

9 Places More Positive And Uplifting Than Social Media | Babylon Bee

Brought to you by: TUVU

Everyone knows how wonderful and soul-nourishing it can be to peruse social media platforms. But are there places you can go that might be even better for your psyche and self-esteem?

The Babylon Bee has compiled the following list of places that are surprisingly more positive and uplifting than social media:

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1. Leper colonies: The moaning, stench of rotting flesh, and general uncleanliness will make you feel just like you’re reading posts on X.
2. Gaza: Everyone there is just as open and accepting of people from different ethnic backgrounds as any social media platform.
3. Taco Bell men’s room: Social media doesn’t have a monopoly on people dumping load after load of foulness.
4. The DMV: Spend a few hours waiting in line to renew your license, and you’ll swear you were in the middle of an old-fashioned Twitter beef.
5. A Diddy party: Celebrities, debauchery, and prosecutable crimes. Who needs an app?
6. The parking lot at an Eagles game when you’re wearing a Cowboys jersey: You may be viciously assaulted, stabbed, or shot, but that’s still better than what happens online.
7. Sodom: The original site for uninhibited, reprehensible acts proves that nothing bad will result from such behavior.
8. Gomorrah: See above.
9. Hunter Biden’s hotel room: It’s just like social media, only with crack and hookers.

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If you ever find yourself without internet access, you can always hit up one of the places listed above and have a more enjoyable experience than trekking through social media. Have your own suggestions? Leave them in the comments below.

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TUVU provides a vibrant platform where Christians can build meaningful connections. Whether it’s sharing testimonies, seeking prayer, or simply engaging in uplifting conversations, TUVU is your digital space to foster relationships that matter.

Engage with Inspiring and Fun Content

TUVU offers a wide range of faith-based content to encourage and entertain. From devotionals and family-friendly videos to thought-provoking discussions, there’s always something to inspire and uplift. Plus, with no ads, bots, or distractions, you can focus fully on what’s important.

Grow in Your Walk with God

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Citing concerns about stiff competition from Amazon and an impossible-to-please Gen Z, Santa has announced he’s hanging up the hat for good.

Watch Santa’s retirement announcement

https://babylonbee.com/news/9-places-more-positive-and-uplifting-than-social-media/