The Future of AI: Transformations on the Horizon 

Although AI has been around for decades, in the span of just two years, AI has enabled a dramatic shift in how we search, shop, and work. The speed of the innovation cycle has increased and last month, my colleague Walmart U.S. CTO Hari Vasudev shared his outlook that in 2025, companies and their governing bodies will expect to see returns against their AI investments.

The technological and transformative opportunities GenAI and Agentic AI present will further accelerate innovation as algorithms and models advance and the boundaries of computational capabilities expand. Agentic AI, in particular, is poised to further this transformation through continuous optimization and automation, self-evaluation, and autonomous decision making. This future state is closer than we might think, and its impact on our ways of working and how we build and deliver software systems will be profound.

Advancements in the industry 

Applications for GenAI are swiftly evolving, making the future feel very immediate. Large language models (LLMs) are becoming more sophisticated, enabling more human-like reasoning. Strategies such as retrieval augmented generation (RAG), fine-tuning, and function calling and multimodal capabilities, such as images, audio, and visual creation, are further pushing the envelope of what is possible with LLMs. The potential uses are limitless, and it's an exciting era for AI development. 

The promise of Agentic AI 

Agentic AI is set to be a major breakthrough. By leveraging LLMs, prompt engineering, and Agentic AI workflow tools, we can create agents that autonomously perform tasks and collaborate with other ai agents, with capabilities to self-govern and improve themselves over time. This will have significant implications, even changing how the applications we build serve our customers, members and associates. 

The evolution of model development

We will also see a trend toward developing vertical AI models based on foundation models and domain-specific knowledge. This concept is akin to having multiple experts handle different pieces of a problem, where one person excels in one area, and another specializes in a different area. This sort of vertical AI model development will become increasingly prevalent, enhancing effectiveness in problem-solving. 

Changes to collaboration

Teams will continue to evolve as well. Within companies such as ours, business teams, technology teams, and product teams will become closer and closer, coming together as smaller, agile teams. These teams will conceive ideas and solutions, rapidly develop and implement them, creating innovative new experiences and solutions with greater speed.

While the tech is still in early days, I am optimistic about the opportunities and advancements that GenAI and Agentic AI present and how they will shape the world. We plan to be at the forefront of retail transformation, using these technologies to drive innovation, enhance efficiency and personalization, so we can power the present and provide solutions for tomorrow.