Mass retail’s year ahead: Tech investments, changing leadership, and chasing newness

Among big box retailers, two names loom large: Walmart and Target, and both are in periods of transition as they head into 2026. With new leadership and big plans to expand and improve their businesses, it could be a formative year for both companies. So to prepare for the changes ahead, here’s a rundown of some trends that could shape the two retail giants over the next 12 months.

Walmart

Continued technology investments: One clear trend to watch for Walmart is an increasing reliance on technology in almost every aspect of its business. In 2025, Walmart touted several new tech investments, including an AI agent for employees called Wally and more recently, a GenAI-powered digital assistant called Sparky for customers.

It also brought its innovation-focused start-up incubator in-house, in part because “the responsibility to shape the future of retail is now shared by all segments,” according to Walmart spokesperson Kasey Anderson. And yet the company continues to find high-profile collaborators, such as a recent partnership with OpenAI integrating its e-commerce operations with ChatGPT. The announcement came as referral traffic from AI agents spiked leading up to the holiday season.

Delivering the goods: Outside of tech, Walmart continues to invest in its omnichannel capabilities, with an emphasis on driving more deliveries to customers. CFO John David Rainey in December said that the company had increased the number of items delivered by 57% in Q3. Relatedly, Walmart just launched its drone delivery program in the Atlanta area, joining Tampa, Houston, Charlotte, and Orlando.

More affluent consumers: On the consumer side, Walmart is seeing more and more affluent shoppers in its stores, a trend that is likely to continue in 2026. A recent survey found that affluent shoppers’ interest in the brand ticked up from 50.6% in 2023 to 54% in 2024. The shift is also driving sales. Outgoing CEO Doug McMillon attributed positive transaction counts and unit volumes in Q3 to “strength across income cohorts and especially with higher-income households.”

Target 

Chasing newness: While Target is struggling more than Walmart, it’s not sitting still either, especially when it comes to product. The retailer is prioritizing newness in its assortment, highlighting early in the holiday season that it was putting 20,000 new items on shelves. Connected to this effort is Target’s use of technology to slash its go-to-market time from 27 to eight weeks, Chief Commerce Officer Rick Gomez said at last year’s NRF Big Show. “I think the next chapter in retail is going to be about innovation, newness, creativity,” he said.

Getting on the AI train: Like its rival Walmart, Target didn’t wait long to embrace artificial intelligence. The company quietly added ChatGPT to its cart at the end of last year. It also launched its own conversational AI agent called Target Gift Finder to generate tailored suggestions for shoppers and another tool called List Scanner that allows customers to scan handwritten lists to add them into a digital cart. These customer-facing apps followed the launch of an AI-powered companion for employees which launched last summer.

Balancing digital and in-store: Finally, Target is making big changes to how it manages inventory across channels. The company announced that low-traffic locations would not be taking on more digital fulfillment responsibilities, while higher-traffic locations would focus more on in-store sales and operations. This change came months after Target said it was employing a new “purchasability metric” to ensure products are available in the right channel at the right time.