Suresh Kumar Is one of TIME's 2026 Executives of the Year: Tech and Data - Time Magazine

Tell Walmart's app that six people are coming for dinner tomorrow and one has a nut allergy, and it works out what you need and fills your cart. Suresh Kumar, Walmart's Global CTO, says this shows how the retailer is developing AI that grasps what you like and also what you're trying to do.

Kumar, an aerospace engineer by training who worked at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, says AI models that anyone can buy aren't the real prize. Walmart's advantage is physical: a store within ten miles of 90% of Americans. The retailer is using AI to turn those stores, warehouses, and drivers into one system. That coordination is why Walmart can now deliver a hot Subway sandwich in the same order with dish soap diapers and a phone charger.

Kumar sees such retail reinvention as similar to the supercenter Walmart pioneered four decades ago, putting groceries and general merchandise under one roof. This time around, he says, AI-connected systems will “change the way in which customers even thinks about what it means to shop."