Walmart tested AI checkout inside ChatGPT for 5 months. 200,000 products.
Converted 3x worse than their website.
The idea was simple: ask ChatGPT what to buy, pay without leaving the chat. You didn't needt to visit Walmart.com.
They shut it down. Then, Shopify pulled out (only 12-30 merchants were ever live).
OpenAI discontinued their Instant Checkout feature entirely.
The problem wasn't the AI. It was what was missing.
You want 5 items? That's 5 separate transactions. 5 shipping calculations. Potentially 5 boxes showing up at your door. Potentially, no loyalty points. No bundle discounts. No "you might also like."
Everything that makes an online store actually convert was missing. Walmart's EVP called it "unsatisfying."
Walmart's fix: keep the AI for discovery, take back the checkout. Same 200,000 products. 2x better conversion.
AI is powerful for discovery, but the transaction itself still belongs to the merchant.