According to the Wall Street Journal, Walmart’s innovation unit named Store No. 8 is set to shut down. The decision comes as Walmart aims to reduce expenses.

It is easy to think of the Store No. 8 Innovation Unit as Walmart's battle room. Named for the original Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas, the location opened in 2016 as a technological hub for the store in an effort to counter Amazon's then-dominant e-commerce market.

Store No. 8 experimented with features including text-message shopping and online delivery to customers' homes.

But the Wall Street Journal says the tech hub is about to close. Walmart aims to reduce expenses while experimenting with new technologies.

At Store No. 8, concepts that weren't yet profitable were tested, and some were refined. Furthermore, roughly 300 employees changed to other internal positions within the business. 

Anshu Bhardwaj, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Walmart Global Technology and Walmart Commerce Technologies, spoke about technology at the National Retail Federation's Big Show convention last week in New York City. He said artificial intelligence is convergent in the hands of consumers and businesses and that as the technology grows more widespread, it will expand marketing and sales beyond traditional channels.

Walmart's new search engine, which allows customers to ask basic questions like "football watch party," is powered by AI language models.