Are Walmart’s “Super Agents” a Turning Point for AI?

Walmart has long been a leader in digital, and it continues to lead from the front now in AI. Examples span from revolutionary solutions like its Trend-to-Product platform through to novel task breakthroughs like its successful supplier negotiation chatbot. And in July, the company announced the next stage of its AI strategy, consolidating all its agents into four interfaces it calls “super agents” – one each for customers, employees, engineers, and suppliers. 

The message? Agentic experimentation is entering a new phase: the orchestration era. 

Enter Fusion Teams 

Every major supply chain organization we speak to is exploring agentic AI, with 90% piloting or implementing it, according to a recent Zero100 survey of COOs. Agents are being sprinkled liberally across functions: Dow’s agent for logistics contract analytics, ThyssenKrupp’s factory maintenance agent, and Eneco’s customer service chatbot, to name a few. Many of these exploratory cases work brilliantly. Others stall. But the bigger risk is scattershot progress – islands of innovation that don’t connect into enterprise-scale value. 

Walmart’s consolidation reflects a problem many operations leaders now face: how to connect disparate AI agents into a system that drives end-to-end productivity rather than just functional efficiency. 

The way forward isn’t just about the tech stack. It’s about changing how these tools are built. Fusion teams – cross-functional groups that bring tech and ops into one problem-solving unit – are the organizational structure that makes orchestration possible.  

Right now, they’re rare. Zero100 analysis shows that, on average, only 5-6% of supply chain employees participate in a fusion team today. But the leaders who adopt this approach look mindfully across functional silos and build scalable models.  

McDonald’s, for example, has integrated operations, supply chain, franchising, development, restaurant design, and delivery under a Chief Restaurant Experience Officer to accelerate customer-facing AI. And Chinese appliances firm Haier has long organized the entire company around micro-enterprises that blend R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and service.  

In each case, fusion teams compress the old handoff between ops (specifying needs) and tech (building tools) through collaborative sprints. They co-define problems, assess data readiness, test outputs, and validate agents together, turning experiments into orchestrated systems.  

We Need More Translators 

But we’re finding that often the missing ingredient for successful fusion teams is the Translator.  

Fusion teams are comprised of a mixture of tech users (what we call Citizens), tech designers (Translators), and tech builders (Wizards). Translators – often product managers, process owners, or even UX designers – are essential for translating business needs into tech requirements. Yet, on average, they make up just 3.3% of supply chain hires.

This is a critical gap, as Translators can significantly boost financial performance. Within the industries with the highest concentration of Translators, Zero100 analysis found that companies with the most hires for such roles saw nearly 70% greater operating income growth compared to those that hired the fewest, even with a similar increase in operating expenses. 

Building a fusion team, therefore, begins with identifying and nurturing these critical individuals within your organization – for example, by providing them with a career path and accelerated learning through technical apprenticeship programs.  

Time to Reset 

For COOs and CSCOs, the path forward is clear: stand up fusion teams and build more Translators. One look at Walmart’s careers page shows their growing investment in these roles and fusion workflows. Its Sourcing Product team, for example, is responsible for delivering end-to-end product lifecycle solutions that enable Walmart’s merchants, sourcing managers, and product developers to move from idea to shelf with speed and precision.  

And a product manager (a Translator) sits at the center of this team, leading “the integration of agentic AI into product workflows, including infrastructure, human-AI interaction, and automation of decision-making.” Orchestration is embedded in the org structure.  

Walmart’s AI reset isn’t just their story – it’s everyone’s. By formally integrating tech and ops expertise, supply chain leaders in all industries can ensure their AI pilots add up to something bigger.