Walmart CEO rules out personalized AI pricing as digital shelf labels expand

Walmart CEO John Furner published an open letter to customers and Sam's Club members on September 25, pledging that the retailer will not use shoppers' personal information to set individual prices. "We price the product, not the person," he wrote, adding that charging more on the basis of someone's income, shopping history or moment of need would violate the everyday low price model the business is built on.

Three commitments

The letter sets out three pledges that Walmart says will hold as AI spreads through retail. First, income, purchase history, urgency and what the company believes a customer can afford will not change what that customer pays, and neither will the time of day. Second, Walmart's shopping tools, including its AI assistant Sparky, will not use information customers share to raise a price or to hide lower-priced options that meet their needs. Third, customers decide how much personal data to hand over, and Walmart promises to be clear about how it is used.

One input stays in place: prices can still rise when an item costs more to buy or to ship. Furner added that people will keep overseeing pricing and that Walmart will test its technology against the three commitments.

Why the letter arrived now

It landed on the day the public comment window closed on a proposed Federal Trade Commission enforcement policy on personalized pricing, released on August 19. The proposal warns that businesses may deceive consumers when they do not explain how personal data shapes the prices a shopper sees. Lawmakers are pressing from another side: Representative Frank Pallone has sent pricing questions to 25 companies, Walmart among them. The Financial Times reported that Walmart received two patents this year for automated pricing tools, one of which described using payment methods and even ID numbers to recommend prices.

Shelf labels and Sparky

The letter also defends the digital shelf labels now spreading through Walmart's roughly 4,600 U.S. stores. Furner said the electronic tags keep shelf prices consistent with what is charged at checkout and free staff from replacing paper tags by hand. Walmart says the labels have no cameras, microphones or facial recognition. About 2,300 stores had them in March, with chain-wide coverage expected within a year.

Sparky, launched in June 2025, sits at the centre of the pledge. On the company's August 20 earnings call, Furner said the number of customers using Sparky is up 70% year over year, and that shoppers who use it spend 40% more per order than those who do not. "When you engage with Sparky, that's an invitation to serve you better, not to use your personal information to set a personalized price," the letter states.

What the letter leaves open is discounts. The debate at the FTC and in state legislatures has turned as much on individually targeted offers as on higher prices, and Walmart has not said whether personalized promotions fall inside or outside its promise.