Walmart Secures Machine Learning Patents to Aid Retail Pricing

Walmart has secured U.S. patents for two systems that would use machine learning to inform the company’s pricing, the Financial Times reported Wednesday (March 18).

One patent is for a “system and method for dynamically and automatically updating item prices” for markdowns in its eCommerce unit, while the other is for using machine learning to predict demand and recommend prices, according to the report.

Walmart told the FT that the patents are “unrelated to dynamic pricing.” One is specific to markdowns, while the other is designed to let humans make decisions, per the report.

A Walmart spokeswoman told the FT: “We don’t participate in surge pricing.”

The two patents are among almost 50 that Walmart has secured from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since January, according to the FT report.

PYMNTS reported March 6 that Walmart and other retailers are building systems designed not just to sell more goods, but to operate more intelligently.

For example, Walmart confirmed a sweeping rollout of digital shelf labels across its roughly 5,200 stores in the United States by 2027, marking one of the largest retail technology upgrades underway.

Replacing paper price tags with electronic displays fundamentally changes how stores operate, because they allow retailers to make real-time price updates across thousands of products simultaneously, synchronize pricing between online and in-store environments, run targeted promotions instantly and reduce the labor required for manual price changes.

In February, Walmart introduced a new data insights platform for its retail suppliers.

Scintilla In-Store, an offshoot of the company’s Scintilla platform, is designed to “reduce out-of-stocks, streamline execution, and deliver a seamless omni-shopping experience,” Walmart Data Ventures said at the time in a news release.

Walmart said in June that it introduced AI tools to help its store employees.

Available through the company’s associate app, the offerings include tools that understand, prioritize and recommend tasks; provide real-time translation in 44 languages to facilitate conversations among employees and customers; and conversational AI that provides step-by-step instructions for tasks such as processing a return without a receipt.

It was reported in January that Walmart’s new CEO, John Furner, is known to be tech savvy and intends to expand the company’s digital footprint.

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