Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks about AI shopping future as Wing expands drone delivery at Walmart

Pichai

• Google, Walmart, Wing expand AI shopping and drone delivery partnership
• Wing to deliver by drone from 270 Walmarts, reaching 10% of US population
• AI agents will let users shop and order products directly within AI experiences

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai says AI agents will play a big role in how people shop in the near future, and a growing partnership between Google, Walmart, and Alphabet-owned drone delivery firm Wing offers a glimpse of what that future could look like.

Pichai recently shared on X that Google is working with Walmart and other major retailers on a new system that will allow AI tools to directly connect with shopping platforms. The idea is to let people discover products, place orders, and complete purchases inside AI-powered experiences, instead of jumping between apps or websites. “AI agents will be a big part of how we shop,” Pichai wrote, pointing to deeper links between AI assistants and retail services.

Around the same time, Wing, which is owned by Alphabet, announced a major expansion of its drone delivery partnership with Walmart. The two companies plan to roll out on-demand drone deliveries to another 150 Walmart stores across the US. This is the second expansion in less than a year and builds on services already running in Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta.

The rollout will begin this year and continue through 2027, according to Wing’s chief business officer Heather Rivera. Once completed, Wing will be operating from more than 270 Walmart stores in cities such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Miami. At that scale, the service is expected to reach about 10 percent of the US population.

Customer usage appears to be driving the expansion. Rivera said Wing’s most active users order drone deliveries around three times a week. The items being delivered are mostly everyday groceries rather than high-end products. Common orders include eggs, ground beef, tomatoes, avocados, limes, Lunchables, and snack foods like Takis.

Wing first partnered with Walmart in 2023, starting with a small pilot in the Dallas area that served about 60,000 homes. That trial later expanded to 18 Walmart Supercenters in Dallas-Fort Worth and then moved into Atlanta. While Wing also works with DoorDash, Walmart remains its main channel for large-scale commercial operations.

The company is also upgrading its technology. Wing recently completed its first commercial flights using a larger drone capable of carrying packages weighing up to five pounds. Rivera said the company is focused on scaling operations by opening multiple stores in clusters, rather than one at a time.

Taken together, Google’s push toward AI-led shopping and Wing’s expanding drone delivery network point to a future where browsing, buying, and receiving everyday items could happen with just a few prompts to an AI assistant.