| |
|
EVENT DETAILS |
An Experiential Tour of Walmart's New Intelligence Research Lab - the Future of Retail & Customer Experience
a Tech 2025 field trip
FULL INFO & event agenda at website:bit.ly/t25walmart
***Registration is limited toa maximum of 30 people. Transportation to/from Walmart IRL (private bus) & lunch included.***
OVERVIEW:
How is Walmart using AI to design the retail experience of the future?
An Exploratory Field Trip to Walmart's "Store of the Future"
Technology enables us to understand so much more - in real time - about our business. When you combine all the information we're gathering in IRL with Walmart's 50-plus years of expertise in running stores, you can create really powerful experiences that improve the lives of both our customers & associates. Customers can be confident about products being there, about the freshness of produce & meat. Those are the types of things that AI can really help with. --Mike Hanrahan, CEO of Walmart Intelligence Retail Lab
Walmart's newIntelligence Research Lab(IRL) Store No. 8is unlike any other supermarket in the world. Launched in early 2019, it's a unique, real-world shopping environment designed to explore the possibilities artificial intelligence can contribute to the store experience. This location is the testing ground for new, innovative ideas within a real store (with real customers!) containing over 30,000 items. The store isset up to gather data about what's happening throughout the store, at all times, using sensors, cameras & processors. And all of this hardware "is connected by enough cabling to scale Mt. Everest five times & enough processing power to download three years' worth of music (27,000 hours) each second."(Official Announcement:Walmart's New Intelligent Retail Lab Shows a Glimpse into the Future of Retail, IRL)
JOIN USfor a very unique glimpse into the future of retail at Walmart's new tech incubator Store No. 8, in Levittown, New York, where Walmart converted it's 50,000 square foot Levittown store into a "tech experiment" to research how a supermarket run by AI might operate & how customers would engage with the technologies.
We will be givena private, guided tour by Walmart IRL engineersincluding an overview of the technologies being used throughout the store & their mega-data center(which is a very visible part of the supermarket & shopping experience!). We will see, first-hand, how Walmartis innovating the customer experience & store management with AI & you'll get to ask plenty of questions to take back to your team at the office.
Tour Agenda: from Amazon GO to Walmart IRL
Although most of our field trip will be spent at Walmart IRL in Levittown, we will begin our day by meeting atAmazon Go(Amazon's new, fully automated market)at 42nd Street & Lexington Avenue, where you'll be able to grab coffee & light food for the 1-hour bus ride to Walmart. We will take note of our experience at Amazon Go and, at the end of the day, compare our experiences at Amazon Go & Walmart IRL (how'sthatfor comparison shopping!!).
During the ride to Walmart IRL (private, rented bus), a special guest speaker (TBA) will lead an interactive discussionon AI & the the future of retail. Once we arrive at Walmart, our experiential tour & discussions will focus on the following topics:
the future of retail customer experience
implementing technologies in real-world retail settings
the future of work (automated technologies replacing human labor), and
the evolution of in-store marketing & advertising.
We will explore how Walmart's idea of a "live shopping environment infused with AI" is executed from both the consumer & employee perspectives, including concerns that these data-gathering & tracking technologies cause (especial with regards toconsumer privacy/data & potential job displacement by automation technologies).
Because this store is an experiment, it's the perfect opportunity to ask questions about it's goals & results:How is Walmart educating consumers & employees in the store about the technologies they are interfacing withwhile shopping & working?What's working? What's not working? And what does this tell us about how we should (or shouldn't) be thinking about the future of retail?
The finalized agenda will be emailed to attendees by January 1. Below is a rough agenda outline:
9am-- Arrive at 42nd Street & Lexington where private bus will take us to Walmart IRL Levittown
9:am -- 9:30am - visit Amazon GO store (buy food, coffee, etc.),take note of your experience engaging with the store's technology
9:35am --Depart for Walmart IRL (private bus)
10:40AM -- Arrive at Walmart IRL
11AM--noon -- Guided tour by Walmart IRL Engineers
Noon - 12:30PM - tour debrief, Q&A & discussion
12:45pm - 2PM -- lunch (not included in tour fee)
2PM - 3PM: bus ride back to NYC (arrive at 3pm)
***Registration is limited toa maximum of 30 people***
|
|
|
|
|
|
