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| Walmart/ Getty |
Walmart is deploying millions of ambient Internet of Things battery-free sensors throughout its massive supply chain in the U.S.The retail giant is using technology from Wiliot in what the IoT vendor is calling the first large-scale deployment of ambient IoT in the retail sector and one of the largest such implementations to date.
Ambient IoT is a class of IoT devices mainly powered by harvesting ambient energy from radio waves, light, motion, heat, or other viable ambient energy sources. It's an evolution of legacy IoT and radio frequency identification technologies that promise lower costs and high scalability.
Walmart will be using the IoT sensors to track pallets nationwide by the end of 2026. "Expansion to other global markets is under consideration, but the immediate focus is the U.S. rollout," Cathey said.
The company will now have real-time insights into inventory management, knowing exactly where merchandise is located and whether it's owned by the retailer, at any moment, and covering an estimated 90 million pallets of inventory when at full scale.
The ambient IoT sensors Walmart uses capture signals about temperature, location, humidity, and dwell time. These signals are linked with the company's advanced artificial intelligence systems, enabling the company to dramatically improve supply chain efficiency, inventory accuracy, and cold chain compliance.
"We expect to be active in about 500 Walmart locations by the end of the year, with plans for national expansion in 2026," said Greg Cathey, senior vice president of transformation and innovation at Walmart.
The rollout will cover 4,600 Walmart Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, and more than 40 distribution centers, generating high-resolution supply chain data that feeds into Walmart's AI systems, he said.
"This data provides proof of delivery, improves replenishment decisions, and lets us know where our items are in real time," Cathey said. "By combining continuous sensing with AI, we're moving from probabilistic predictions to precision decision-making."
What makes the addition of ambient IoT sensors significant is it provides a new "stream of data" into AI systems, enabling them to be even more effective in giving Walmart greater visibility into supply chain operations.
The technology initiative is already making a significant impact by eliminating some manual tasks and providing automated alerts, Cathey said. "Associates no longer need to perform time-consuming checks to locate items," he said. "Automated alerts now flag this information in real time, allowing associates to act faster and dedicate more time to serving customers."The enhanced visibility into the supply chain is also helping to resolve inventory discrepancies, allowing improved customer experiences.