💬 Quoted… “The huge potential is that any kind of company can soon use AI for a problem that normally requires an entire procurement team to handle.”

For the past two years, Walmart has been using an AI chatbot developed by California-based startup Pactum AI to bargain with some of its 100,000+ suppliers, per a Bloomberg article published late last week. And according to Walmart execs, things are going pretty smoothly:

• The new AI helper has successfully reached deals with ~68% of suppliers it approached since 2021, with an average savings of 3% compared to non-AI-brokered contracts.
• Pactum AI’s software has also cut Walmart’s negotiating time for each supplier deal down to days, compared to weeks or months when handled solely by humans.

🎶 Stat of the Day: An estimated 50% of Americans who purchased a vinyl record within the past year don’t own a record player, per a recent study by Luminate.

🤯 Did You Know?... In 1989, a Philadelphia man spent $4 at a local flea market to buy a less-than-stellar painting he wanted for its frame; after returning home, the man discovered one of the 26 known copies of the Declaration of Independence hidden behind the painting. He later auctioned it off for $2.42 million.

📖 Worth a Read: ​​We Hope Your iPhone Never Gets Stolen. But Just in Case… → (WSJ)