Walmart Rolls Out Agentic Advertiser Assistant

As 2026 begins, the retail giant is touting Marty’s effectiveness in acting as an advertising assistant, as Walmart Connect, the company’s advertising platform, embeds newer AI agentic technology to boost advertiser performance and streamline the workflow for brands.

“Our agentic advertising assistant helps brands of all sizes to run smarter, faster, and more effective campaigns,” Walmart Connect wrote in a Tuesday (Jan. 6) blog post. “Users of any level of expertise can build, optimize, and troubleshoot campaigns with ease—like simplifying campaign setup through plain-language guidance, from strategy to execution.”

Currently in beta for what Walmart calls “Sponsored Search campaigns,” the advertising assistant offers answers and recommendations via conversational chat on topics like bidding, keywords and billing.

“We’ve already found that 97% of user queries are unique, a clear sign that advertisers are using the assistant in highly personalized ways,” the post added. “The advertising assistant will be available to all Sponsored Search advertisers in the Walmart Connect Ad Center later this half, with more enhanced capabilities and insights rolling out along the way.”

Walmart Connect says it plans to continue testing advertising formats within Walmart’s Sparky agent, noting the potential for AI-first shopping experiences to transform how customers search and discover products. A survey of the company’s shoppers found that 81% had used Sparky to check product availability and review product specifications before making a purchase.

“Search remains the most popular entry point, but as customers adopt these new shopping behaviors—as with all new touchpoints—we are exploring ways to help brands continue to meet customers where they are,” the post added.

As covered here late last year, Walmart’s Retail Media business has been thriving in the U.S. While sales remained steady, that part of the company’s business grew 33% year over year in the closing quarter, six times faster than overall company revenue. The company says that retail media and membership fees together now account for roughly a third of its operating income.

“What makes Walmart’s performance particularly significant is not just the growth rate, but the context,” PYMNTS wrote. “Retail media is expanding during a period when consumer spending is cautious, brand budgets are scrutinized, and traditional digital advertising platforms are under regulatory and signal-loss pressure. That Walmart is thriving in this environment underscores the structural advantage of first-party data married to physical-world purchase behavior at national scale.”