Enterprises are pursuing AI agents as part of a broader transformation and automation push. Here’s a look at the projects we’re watching for May.
Paypal: Building agentic commerce
Paypal has big dreams of being an agentic commerce platform that can connect consumers, merchants, and decision support into one AI-driven loop. It's a promising vision.
But first the company has to get down its tech debt.
The company must collapse its data silos to create one customer platform. Then it has to get to cloud native capabilities across its platform. From there, PayPal is expecting to rock its AI strategy at full speed.
Here's a look at the timeline.
Bank of America scales its AI agent plays
Bank of America was early in the AI assistant game with Erica way back before generative AI took off.
Today use newer models, Erica is getting an overhaul that will be aimed at not only customer support but internal employee experience.
Citigroup: AI enablement
Citigroup outlined how it is using Google Cloud as an AI enabler across the company. Now it is ready to scale its use of AI to drive efficiencies.
Like PayPal, Citigroup has had to collapse a bevy of systems, refine its data strategy and do a lot of blocking and tackling to rev its AI strategy.
Citigroup has been under transformation for years, but now looks like it's ready to actually move on its AI dreams.
Walmart: Continuous optimization
Walmart has more projects than you can mention, but its ability to use AI for experience and supply chain optimization is going to be critical in the current environment. Some items being rolled out. A look at Walmart’s platform approach to data, AI, optimization
- Sparky, an AI shopping assistant.
- Trend-to-Product, a tool to speed up fashion design.
- Just Go AI Checkout, a computer vision checkout system that will be rolled out to all Sam's Club locations.
- Wally, an AI assistant for merchants that will evolve into an inventory AI agent.
Bank of New York Mellon: A bet on OpenAI
With a partnership with OpenAI, BNY is building a platform that will leverage AI agents through the enterprise. The effort is a work in progress, but BNY is making good progress. I'm watching this project because it’s one of the large enterprises betting on OpenAI innovation.
