---
id: "entity-sparky"
type: "entity"
entityType: "product"
canonicalName: "Sparky"
aliases: ["Walmart Sparky"]
source_timestamps: ["§ What Comes Next: Competing for an AI Customer's Preference"]
tags: ["ai-agent", "retail-tech"]
related: ["entity-walmart"]
sources: ["geo"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-geo"
originDay: 3
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-05-market-to-ai-customer"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/how-do-you-market-to-an-ai-customer"
sourceTitle: "How Do You Market to an AI Customer?"
---
# Sparky

**Walmart's proprietary AI shopping agent** ([[entity-walmart-d3]]), developed as an answer to Amazon's [[entity-rufus]]. Walmart integrated Sparky into ChatGPT after the demise of OpenAI's Instant Checkout (see [[claim-autonomous-checkout-difficulty]]), using it to **route customers back to Walmart's owned environment** for final payment and loyalty tracking — the mechanism behind [[claim-checkout-belongs-to-retailer]] and the play in [[action-retain-checkout-loop]].

*Enrichment note:* Sparky is referenced in industry commentary as Walmart's internal AI shopping agent, but detailed public documentation is limited (inference from sparse direct references).