Walmart CEO assures customers no personalized pricing with new AI tools
Walmart chief John Furner said the retailer will not set different prices for shoppers based on personal data or time of day, despite new digital shelf tags and the AI assistant Sparky.
Walmart’s president and CEO John Furner issued a communication to employees and customers stating the chain will not employ personalized pricing, even as it rolls out digital shelf labels and the AI-driven shopping assistant Sparky. He emphasized that price changes will continue to reflect product costs, not a shopper’s income, buying patterns, or the time of purchase. The digital tags are designed to ensure the price displayed matches the checkout amount and to reduce the labor of changing paper tags.
Sparky, according to Furner, is an invitation to serve shoppers better without using their personal information to set higher prices. He reiterated Walmart’s commitment to its Every Day Low Prices model and outlined three guarantees: uniform pricing, no price manipulation via AI tools, and responsible handling of any shared customer data. Ongoing monitoring and human oversight will safeguard these commitments.
