Walmart Stock Heads for a Record High. The Retailer Could Become a Leader in ‘Agentic’ AI.

Walmart launched its artificial-intelligence powered chatbot, Sparky, in summer 2025. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Walmart may not be the first company that comes to mind when you hear the term artificial intelligence. But analysts say the retail giant is poised to join the early leaders in AI, at a time when rivals from Amazon to Target are fighting to stay ahead of the trend.

Analysts at BofA Securities believe Walmart is set to become “a leader in agentic AI.” The firm reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and lifted its price target slightly to $125 from $120 on Wednesday.

Shares were up 2.2%, at $105.64, in midday trading Wednesday, on pace for an all-time high, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Analysts with the firm noted that Walmart’s flagship AI agent, Sparky, “is testing well and will soon start taking ‘agentic’ action” as opposed to just answering questions. Sparky was unveiled company-wide at the beginning of June, and is currently available in the Walmart app.

Agentic AI is broadly defined as an AI system that can make decisions and act with agency, without considerable human oversight. Walmart’s interest in AI is nothing new: The company has been vocal about its use of large-language models to manage its product catalogs.

In January 2024, the company said it was partnering with Microsoft to develop proprietary AI technology. At the end of the year, the retail giant announced a major push to roll out generative AI across the business.

Walmart’s latest endeavor, Sparky, could move in the agentic direction over next few weeks or months, BofA contended. If it hasn’t established itself as an AI leader already, Walmart can harness its massive scale to grow into a formidable contender, according to BofA.

As the largest retailer in the U.S., Walmart has “unmatched” access to data from 180 million customers. That data will inevitably be used to train Walmart’s AI and tailor its responses to shoppers.

Walmart also has a “high potential for partnerships” with some of the leading large-language models, the BofA analysts wrote. John Furner, CEO and president of Walmart U.S., announced in a LinkedIn post earlier this month that Walmart was teaming up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to offer employees “free AI training.”

Even against a backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty, Walmart continues to gain customers, supported by traction in its pharmacy business as well as its new co-branded credit card with Synchrony .

While the member count for the retailer’s Walmart+ program already runs in the tens of millions, the addition of the Synchrony card “could be an incremental driver to membership growth, in our view,” the BofA team wrote. The firm noted that the retail giant is seeing younger shoppers embracing its private-label merchandise.

The Street consensus is that this retail and wholesale behemoth has room to grow. Of 40 firms tracked by FactSet, 39 rate Walmart stock at Buy or the equivalent. Just one, Edgewater Research, rates it at Hold.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com