This Week in AI: S&P, Etsy Leverage AI, Instacart CEO Joins OpenAI, Amazon and Walmart Go Robotic

In an exclusive interview with PYMNTS, S&P Global Chief AI Officer Bhavesh Dayalji said he sees agentic artificial intelligence (AI) as the next transformational wave for business analysis and workflows.

The financial information giant has enabled its AI agents to work with other AI agents across companies and the sector.

S&P Global’s Kensho LLM-ready API lets clients integrate its datasets into their GenAI models. The API is compatible with OpenAI’s GPT series, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude and others. For example, some of its commodities data shows up in Microsoft Copilot.

The next phase for S&P Global is “ensuring that our data shows up in these new ecosystems that are being developed,” Dayalji said.

Read more: S&P Global AI Chief Eyes ‘Exciting’ Pace of Agentic AI Innovation

Etsy’s CPO Looks to Human-AI Collaboration

Etsy Chief Product Officer Nick Daniel told PYMNTS the retailer is pursuing a strategy it calls “algotorial curation,” which blends product recommendations by Etsy’s staff with advanced machine learning algorithms to scale curation across its inventory.

“Rather than removing human expertise from our merchandising work as AI becomes more powerful, we’re leveraging these tools to amplify the expertise of our team and create a more personalized experience,” he said. “We’re putting human touch — from our buyers to our teams of employees to our sellers — at the center of shopping on Etsy.”

See more: Etsy’s ‘Algotorial Curation’ Blends Human Touch With AI Smarts

OpenAI Hires Instacart’s CEO

OpenAI has appointed Instacart CEO Fidji Simo as its new CEO of Applications, marking a significant move as the company expands beyond AI models.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the hire reflects the company’s evolution into a global product provider, infrastructure builder and nonprofit organization.

“Each of these is a massive effort that could be its own large company,” Altman wrote in a blog post. “Bringing on exceptional leaders is a key part of doing that well.”

Simo will oversee OpenAI’s Applications division, focused on scaling the company’s user-facing products as it enters a new phase of growth.

Read more: OpenAI Picks Instacart Chief Fidji Simo to Oversee Operations

OpenAI Unveils New Corporate Structure

OpenAI has abandoned plans to convert to a corporate structure where the for-profit arm is in charge, after speaking with the attorneys general of California and Delaware as well as civic leaders.

Instead, it will keep its nonprofit parent and convert the capped-profit subsidiary into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), which is a for-profit entity whose mission must also include a public good.

The old set-up had the nonprofit parent controlling the capped-profit subsidiary, which puts a ceiling on the ROI of investors. The PBC would have no such ceiling, allowing OpenAI to attract much more funding to pay for expensive training of its AI models and building of data centers.

Elon Musk, who sued to stop the for-profit conversion, will not drop his lawsuit, his attorney told PYMNTS.

Read more: OpenAI to File Scaled-Back Restructuring That Keeps Nonprofit in Charge

Amazon and Walmart go Head-to-Head in Robotics

Amazon and Walmart have long competed on product selection, prices and delivery speeds. Now they’re also competing in robotics.

Amazon this week introduced Vulcan, a fulfillment center robot and Amazon’s first robot equipped with a sense of touch. It can handle approximately 75% of warehouse items, including those that are oddly shaped or fragile, and operates up to 20-hour shifts.

Walmart is turning to machines that can build. Walmart partnered with Alquist 3D to construct a 5,000-square-foot warehouse extension in Huntsville, Alabama, using robotic 3D printing technology. It was completed in just seven days with a five-person crew.

See more: How Amazon and Walmart Are Rewiring Retail’s Future With Robotics