Suresh Kumar on innovation
From Inside Converge 2025 with Suresh Kumar | Walmart’s flagship retail tech event · · Walmart Global Tech
“I don't think I can pinpoint one particular one. There's so much that we get to witness whether it is the innovation, the spirit of our associates, the interaction that we had with all of these amazing speakers like Nandan, the conversation around AI, its future possibilities, all of these things have been fantastic.”
On , Suresh Kumar, Global Chief Technology Officer, Chief Development Officer & Executive Vice President at Walmart, spoke about innovation during Inside Converge 2025 with Suresh Kumar | Walmart’s flagship retail tech event on Walmart Global Tech.
About Suresh Kumar
Suresh Kumar, Walmart's Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer, has been a prominent voice on the company's integration of artificial intelligence. In a December 2025 podcast appearance, he described AI as "core to the business" and stated that Walmart is using AI to transform customer experiences and internal operations, including the use of digital twins to model its supply chain network. At Walmart's Converge 2025 event in September, Kumar announced the launch of "YB," a new developer "super agent," and new capabilities for "Element," a platform for intelligent workflows. He described an "agentic shift" in AI, moving from building models to creating agents that "can think, that can plan, that can act on their own." In his keynote, Kumar argued that the focus should be on designing for people rather than racing for features, and that technology is "not just a tool, it's a teammate." Kumar has also discussed the role of emerging technologies in retail. In a 2022 interview, he stated that cryptocurrency "will be an important part" of retail transactions and that Walmart wants to be "where the customer really needs us" regarding different payment methods. He has emphasized an experimental approach to technology, advising teams to consider "blast radius and reversibility" and to test new ideas in small increments before scaling. In 2024, he participated in the inauguration of the Walmart Center for Tech Excellence at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, a partnership aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) benefit from digitalization and AI.