Walmart building an intelligent Retail Lab in one of its stores

Walmart has announced that it will be launching an intelligent Retail Lab inside one of its stores in New York. The company wants to test both associate and customer experiences. For instance, Walmart wants to use AI to identify when items are running low on stock.

Lead by a team called Kepler, Walmart plans on using AI to identify when the shopping carts are running low at the entrance, or when the items are placed on the wrong shelf. There have been reports surrounding the project Kepler saying that it would entail cashierless stores. But, Walmart says Kepler is the name of the team responsible for building the AI lab inside the working store.

The company is yet to launch the IRL, but ha already started installing the hardware, software and the necessary setup to test the new tech. Through its warehouse and Sam's club, the company is testing new concepts such as mobile checkout, a camera set up to manage inventory, electronic shelf labels and others.

With Kepler, Walmart envisions to test these capabilities inside a real grocery store, rather than a warehouse club store.

Besides, the company has also ventured into the gaming PC business in partnership with Esports Arena. Walmart launched three laptops and three desktop towers that are built specifically for gaming. Dubbed Overpowered, the new lineup of PCs will be available exclusively through the company's official website.

The devices are powered by Intel Core i7 CPUs, 32GB of memory alongside high-capacity HDDs and SSDs, and up to 1080Ti Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics cards. They are also ready for virtual reality applications.

The PCs are available for pre-order at Walmart.com, starting at a price of $999 for the lowest cost laptop, while its desktop counterpart costs $1,399.

The retail giant also has plans to launch a low-cost streaming service which will lock horns with already popular Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, reports The Information. Walmart will undercut the pricing of the existing streaming services, as well as reach out to the users who haven't already opted any of the streaming video services, particularly in middle-America.