Walmart is launching its own voice assistant, “Ask Sam.” For now, the technology will only be available to associates at over 5,000 Walmart stores.
On the day when the U.S. Congress tried to accuse Bezos of building a “voice” monopoly, Walmart is launching its own voice assistant. Ironic.
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For now “Ask Sam” will only be available to employees at over 5,000 Walmart stores across the United States. The voice assistant allows employees to look up prices, access store maps, find products, view sales information, check email and a lot more. Since the start of the pandemic, “Ask Sam” has also provided access to COVID-19 information, guidelines and safety videos.
The voice assistant was initially developed for use in Walmart-owned Sam’s Club stores where it has been available since 2019. This first test showed that accessing crucial information with the immediacy of voice helped store associates to better engage with customers instead of having to type in queries and read out information.
The voice assistance technology uses machine learning to get smarter and more accurate over time. One of the reasons why it might only be available to employees, for now, could be to further advance its progress, some kind beta testing at scale, perhaps.