The Internet-of-Things technology has been around for two decades, but Walmart is now investing in San Diego-based Wiliot[1] to deploy its smart sensors in the retail giant’s massive supply chain.
The deal, announced earlier this month, is billed as the largest such deployment of ambient IoT in the retail sector. With millions of battery-free IoT sensors developed by Wiliot, Walmart will be able to retrieve real-time location of merchandise in its 4,600 stores by the end of 2026. At scale, the sensors will be able to track an estimated 90 million pallets of inventory.
Wiliot said its ambient IoT is powered by harvesting ambient energy from radio waves. light, motion, heat or other viable energy sources. It’s an evolution of legacy IoT and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies that allow for lower costs and more scalability, according to the company.
“With Walmart, we are advancing supply chain performance at an unprecedented scale,” said Tal Tamir, CEO of Wiliot. “This nationwide deployment adds a new layer of digitization to Walmart’s supply chain, empowering associates with real-time insights and automation that drive greater efficiency, accuracy, and responsiveness.”
Greg Cathey, senior vice president of transformation and innovation at Walmart, said the retailer will use the new IoT sensors to track pallets nationwide by the end of 2026, with hopes of expanding to global markets after that.
“We expect to be active in about 500 Walmart locations by the end of the year, with plans for national expansion in 2026,” said Cathey. “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.”
The ambient IoT sensors Walmart uses capture signals about temperature, location, humidity, and dwell time. The 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.
“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.”
He said the ambient IoT sensors provide a new stream of data into AI systems, enabling them to be even more effective in giving Walmart greater visibility into its supply chain operations. The technology is already making an impact by eliminating some manual tasks that free up employee time to allow for stocking of shelves and improving inventory discrepancies.
Cathey stopped short of providing information about anticipated cost savings, but said Walmart is anticipating gains from higher supply chain efficiency, improved inventory accuracy, reduced manual tasks for associates, and the ability to get items on shelves more quickly.