Walmart's AI-First Shopping Experience
Walmart wanted to transform online shopping from overwhelming to intuitive. As Design Director, I led and owned the design for Walmart's AI-powered shopping experience, reimagining product discovery for millions of customers through multimodal search and personalized recommendations that help shoppers find exactly what they need—whether browsing complex electronics or discovering their perfect style. The platform bridges Walmart's physical and digital presence by using contextual intelligence to deliver confident, purchase-ready recommendations.
Problem
Shoppers struggle to express needs or feel confident about product fit using traditional filters and static images.
Solution
AI-powered search and fashion tools interpret intent, images, and preferences to deliver accurate recommendations.
What I Brought
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As Design Director, I owned the end-to-end design vision for Walmart's next-generation shopping experience—from initial customer problem framing through design principles and strategic direction. I led cross-functional partnerships across product, engineering, and research to transform complex AI capabilities into intuitive, trustworthy shopping tools.
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I worked closely with engineers, product managers and researchers to translate complex AI models into seamless, user-friendly editing tools, ensuring that every AI-driven enhancement aligns with real creative workflows, feels natural to users, and is continuously refined based on research and feedback.
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I championed rapid experimentation and iterative design, leveraging AI to eliminate shopping friction, enable multimodal discovery, and deliver personalized experiences through adaptive, context-aware features that build customer confidence and drive purchase decisions.
What I Built With AI
This next-generation shopping platform is an AI-powered mobile experience with multiple innovative features designed for discovery, confidence, and personalization:
Multimodal AI Search
Enables customers to search using voice, photos, or video, combining natural language with visual recognition to surface accurate results and eliminate zero-result queries.
AI Shopping Wizard with AR
Guides customers through contextual questions about needs, preferences, and environment, then uses AR to visualize products in their actual space for confident decision-making.GenAI Fashion Discovery
Provides personalized style recommendations, virtual try-on experiences, and AI-curated outfit suggestions that adapt to individual preferences and shopping occasions.Intelligent Product Comparison
Automatically analyzes user context, intent, and behavior to deliver transparent, confidence-building comparisons with supporting evidence and relevant reviews.
Design Vision
Our vision was based on user research, landscape analysis, and design concepting. With this strategy the team proceeded to create an end-to experience.
Shopping for a TV with Multimodal Search
I led design for Walmart’s next-generation shopping experience integrating AI into search, browse, and Live Camera features. Introduced an AI shopping wizard that refines recommendations based on user context, intent, and behavior. Combined multimodal inputs—voice, photo, and video—with AR simulations to help customers discover the right products faster and more intuitively.
Use Case 1:
Multimodal search
A Walmart customer is looking for a new TV. She uses a multimodal video for AI to scan measurements and the lighting in her space to gain context insights to make intelligent recommendations.
AI Wizard + AR Comparison
Using AI search chat, the user answers simple quiz to get higher confidence recommendations. She then uses AR to compare the 3 TVs in her room.
Next-Gen AI Fashion Experience
Created a multimodal, AI-powered shopping journey where customers can search by image or voice, explore GenAI and influencer videos, and experience fashion-forward search and product pages. Introduced a Try-It-On Studio, dynamic trend pages, and personalized style profiles to make discovery more inspiring, intuitive, and uniquely personal.
Use Case 2:
Inspiring PDP and Virtual Try-on
We made the fashion PDP more visual and inspiring with storytelling and interactive cards. The new try-it-on feature lets shoppers upload a photo and see the outfit on themselves in different settings for a more personal, confidence-boosting experience.
Style Profile
The Style Profile Wizard lets shoppers quickly personalize their fashion experience through a fun, AI-guided quiz. It delivers a tailored style report with curated outfits and colors that match their vibe.
“Lance is super collaborative, constantly iterating on the vision and staying focused on building realistic, user-centered designs. He’s found creative, scrappy ways to explore new ideas and move things forward.”
Keshav Agrawal, Sr Director of Product Walmart
15%
increase in TV purchase
driven by multimodal inputs (voice, photo, video) that surface more accurate results and reduce zero-result queries.
18%
reduction in clothing returns
caused by higher confidence in fit and style from visual try-on and personalized style profiles.
Outcomes
Led and owned design for an AI-first mobile shopping experience transforming product discovery for millions of Walmart customers
Unified search, browse, and Live Camera features into a cohesive AI-powered journey that builds customer confidence
Positioned to drive significant increases in purchase conversion and customer loyalty through personalized, trustworthy AI
Next Steps
Continue refining AI models to improve recommendation accuracy and personalization
Explore integration opportunities with Walmart's physical store experience
Develop enhanced collaborative shopping features for shared decision-making
Expand fashion AI capabilities to additional product categories