AI in the real world: Standing by to make you smarter, more productive

With so many options for incorporating artificial intelligence — back office, inventory, customer experience, personalization — it can be tough to know where to start. That doesn’t matter, according to the opening session at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show. Just start.

John Furner, president and CEO, Walmart U.S., joined Azita Martin, vice president and general manager, Retail & CPG, NVIDIA, on stage for a conversation that ran the gamut from current examples of AI use in retail to the importance of risk-taking and ongoing learning.

Martin recalled a quote from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. “Somone asked, ‘Is ChatGPT going to take our job?’ He made a point that has always stood out with me,” she said. “I always use it on his behalf. And that is, ‘No, but someone using generative AI may take your job.’ So, embrace it. It’s a tool that just makes you more productive, and it’s going to make you so much smarter.”

NVIDIA, a leader in artificial intelligence computing, recently announced its AI Blueprint for retail shopping assistants, a generative AI reference workflow designed to transform shopping experiences online and in stores. It helps developers create AI-powered digital assistants that work with and support human workers.

The company also unveiled Mega, an Omniverse Blueprint for developing, testing and optimizing physical AI and robot fleets at scale in a digital twin before deployment into real-world facilities. Then there’s Nemotron, a family of models that have both language skills and perception, helping developers create and deploy AI agents across a range of applications. “It’s to the physical world what ChatGPT is to text and language,” Martin said.

Martin spoke of L’Oréal combining digital twins of assets with generative AI models, fostering faster — and more engaging — creation of ads and marketing campaigns. Walmart has also worked with NVIDIA’s data science acceleration libraries to focus on forecasting. “For a company of Walmart’s scale, we know that even one percent improvement in forecast accuracy represents a significant amount of business benefits,” she said.

Both Furner and Martin expressed excitement for the use of artificial intelligence in the supply chain. The ability to create a physically accurate digital twin of a store or distribution center, for example, allows the simulation of different layouts and the ability to observe how people and objects interact before capital investment is made.

Lowe’s has created a digital twin of 1,700 of its stores, Martin said, updating several times a day with operational and inventory data. “As a result, it will simulate different layouts, to really optimize how customers are shopping in the stores,” she said, “how to change their layouts, and ultimately improve their sales and revenue.” The company is now trying 3D digital twins with its planograms to optimize merchandising, she said.

Furner likes to think of digital twins as akin to a video game. “It’s an idea in your head, and there’s a reality you’ve created, you simulate, and play in it, and results happen,” he said. “You can do the same thing in business.”

Furner urged show attendees to take full advantage of the AI exhibits, sessions and discussions throughout the event. “Listen, learn, ask questions,” he said. “We put this together for all of you, and we want you to benefit from it.”