Walmart Deploys Millions of IoT Sensors Across the U.S.

Walmart is embarking on a large-scale deployment of millions of ambient Internet of Things (IoT) battery-free sensors throughout its U.S. supply chain, aiming for nationwide coverage by the end of 2026. This move signals a significant investment in real-time inventory visibility and supply chain optimization.

The retail behemoth is partnering with Wiliot, leveraging their technology in what is being hailed as one of the largest ambient IoT implementations in the retail sector to date. This deployment marks a pivotal shift towards more sustainable and cost-effective supply chain management.

Ambient IoT represents the next generation of IoT, primarily powered by harvesting ambient energy from sources like radio waves, light, motion, and heat. This evolution of legacy IoT and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies promises substantial cost reductions and enhanced scalability compared to traditional battery-powered solutions. The elimination of battery maintenance and replacement contributes to its long-term cost-effectiveness.

Walmart’s initiative will allow the company to track pallets across its expansive U.S. network. While expansion to overseas markets is a possibility, the current strategy centers on executing a successful domestic rollout. This large-scale sensing footprint is expected to encompass an estimated 90 million pallets of inventory at full capacity.

These ambient IoT sensors will capture crucial data streams including temperature, location, humidity, and dwell time. This information is then integrated with Walmart’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems, enabling the retailer to make data-driven decisions that improve supply chain efficiency, ensure inventory accuracy, and maintain cold chain compliance – a critical factor for perishable goods.

“We anticipate having active implementations in approximately 500 Walmart locations by the close of this year, with plans for a national expansion in 2026,” stated Greg Cathey, senior vice president of transformation and innovation at Walmart. The rollout will encompass 4,600 Walmart Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets, alongside over 40 distribution centers. This generates a wealth of high-resolution supply chain data that will be fed into Walmart’s AI infrastructure, enhancing its performance.

“This data provides verifiable proof of delivery, informs more effective replenishment decisions, and provides real-time location awareness of our items,” Cathey explained. “By combining continuous sensing with AI capabilities, we are transitioning from probabilistic forecasts to precision-driven decision-making.”

Enhanced Supply Chain Visibility and Efficiency

The integration of ambient IoT sensors is particularly significant because it introduces a new, continuous stream of data into Walmart’s AI systems. This enhanced dataset enables AI algorithms to optimize supply chain operations with unparalleled visibility and control.

The initiative is already making a tangible impact by automating tasks and providing intelligent alerts. “Our associates are no longer required to perform manual checks to locate specific items,” Cathey elaborate. “Automated alerts now highlight this information in real-time, enabling our associates to respond more quickly and dedicate additional time to serving our customers.”

This improved supply chain visibility also contributes to resolving inventory discrepancies, ultimately translating to improved customer experiences through more predictable stock availability.

While Cathey did not disclose specific financial figures, Walmart expects to realize significant cost-saving benefits and revenue uplift through improved supply chain efficiency, improved inventory accuracy, reductions in manual labor tasks for employees, and accelerated product availability on shelves, yielding benefits for shoppers. “Customers [will] benefit from better product availability and consistency,” Mr. Cathey added.

“The effectiveness of any AI system depends on the quality of its training data. Superior data leads to improved AI performance,” emphasized Julien Bellanger, president of Wiliot. “Supply chain AI has long relied on inherently outdated data – or forecast data that is based on projections, rather than real-time realities.”

Bellanger added that Ambient IoT is a step-change because it feeds AI with data that describes what’s happening across the various supply chains, rather than relying on what may have happened.

According to Bill Ray, distinguished VP Analyst, at Gartner, this isn’t Walmart’s first rodeo when it comes to leveraging new inventory tracking technology. “Walmart was an early adopter of RFID back in 2004, with the goal of providing much the same functionality as these Ambient IoT sensors. However, the comparatively high cost of RFID tags at the time prevented full-scale adoption.” Ray postulates that drastically lower costs associated with Ambient IoT will be a major catalyst for wider adoption.

Furthermore, Ray emphasizes the broader business opportunity already established amongst retail leaders regarding IoT Systems: “The business models have been well studied and evaluated, when RFID was first touted as the solution to supply chain problems. RFID has had an enormous impact, but the cost of the tags prevented the transformation it had promised. The industry has been able to integrate the new, lower-cost tags into the same value models, and come up with positive answers.”

Gartner has been closely following Wiliot’s development. “The key question was never about the technology’s capabilities. Instead, the focus was whether Wiliot could reliably scale production without compromising tag performance or price, and seamlessly integrate with existing legacy supply chain systems. This announcement demonstrates that Walmart is confident in their capabilities and that Wiliot has now to follow through on its promise and prove it,” Ray concluded.

“Ambient IoT just works,” Cathey said. “It requires neither wanding nor scanning. It empowers our associates to perform their duties safely and efficiently, while simultaneously providing continuous, real-time visibility into our supply chain.” This allows Walmart to proactively improve its operational efficiency and provide an overall better customer experience.