Chatbot Shopping: Darden Professor Calls Walmart’s OpenAI Partnership ‘Bold, Strategic Gamble’

You might already ask ChatGPT for dinner ideas or travel tips.

But soon, it could be picking out your groceries.

Walmart’s new partnership with OpenAI is making AI-powered shopping a reality and Darden Professor Luca Cian says it’s about more than convenience.

“When consumers let AI make purchase decisions,” he says, “brands have to rethink what loyalty and authenticity really mean.”

A Bold Bet on AI

Retailers have long treated purchase data as their crown jewel: a reflection of what people buy, when and why.

By opening that data to OpenAI, Walmart is making what Cian calls “a bold strategic gamble that being first to market in AI-driven shopping is worth more than keeping the data to themselves.”

The move positions Walmart at the front of a retail transformation where AI could become the main interface between shoppers and brands.

“Every purchase made through ChatGPT becomes information OpenAI can analyze,” Cian explains. “That changes who really owns the customer relationship.”

When Machines Make the Recommendations

Cian, the Kilgallon Ohio Art Professor of Marketing and chair of Darden’s Marketing area, studies how consumers build trust with technology and what he calls augmented decision-making, a future where AI doesn’t just assist human choices but actively shapes them.

His research shows that consumers readily trust AI for practical, everyday purchases but still prefer human input for emotional or experiential ones.

“For functional decisions — paper towels, toothpaste — people see AI as logical and efficient,” he says. “But for personal or sentimental purchases, people still want the human touch. That emotional understanding is something algorithms haven’t mastered.”

That distinction, he notes, makes Walmart’s partnership strategically smart: most of its sales come from utilitarian goods, where consumers already view AI as a credible helper.

But as the retailer expands into more experiential categories, from fashion to home decor, maintaining that human connection will be critical.

Trust, Risk and Responsibility

The greater risk, Cian says, is accountability. “If ChatGPT makes a poor or biased recommendation, who gets blamed: Walmart, OpenAI or AI in general?”

In his research on algorithmic transference, Cian found that when one AI system fails, consumers tend to generalize that failure across all AI systems, eroding trust in the entire category.

“One bad experience with an AI recommendation can damage the whole ecosystem,” he says.

That spillover effect, combined with growing skepticism about how companies use personal data, means retailers must tread carefully. “Trust is the foundation,” Cian says. “Once it’s broken, it’s incredibly hard to rebuild.”

Marketing to Machines

As AI takes on more of a cognitive burden of shopping, brands are having to rethink visibility.

Traditional SEO strategies optimized for Google’s search results are giving way to what Cian calls generative-engine optimization, understanding how AI systems rank and recommend products.

“If your product doesn’t appear in ChatGPT’s top results,” he says, “you might never be considered at all.”

This compression of the marketing funnel, from awareness to purchase in single conversation, means the window to influence consumers is shrinking fast.

“Brands that build strong emotional identities now will be better positioned later,” Cian notes.

“Even AI needs something to work with.”

The Human Advantage

Despite the hype, Cian believes the rise of AI makes human creativity more essential, not less.

“As algorithms take over routine decisions, the differentiators become warmth, authenticity and storytelling,” he says.

“AI can help you find the best laundry detergent, but it can’t make you feel something about a brand.”

That emotional resonance, he argues, is what will separate brands that simply survive technological change from those that thrive in it.

“The future belongs to companies that use AI to enhance human insight — not replace it,” Cian says. “AI will reshape retail, but the brands that keep humanity at the center will be the ones that last.”