How Bolt & Palantir’s AI Checkout Could Change Online Retail

Checkout technology company Bolt has partnered with AI software provider Palantir Technologies to launch what the two companies are calling 'Checkout 2.0'.

At its heart, this partnership aims to revolutionise how online retailers manage the checkout process.

With the new system, Bolt and Palantir hope to replace traditional static checkout forms with more adaptive, more personalised pages that can respond to the behaviour and preferences of individual customers.

Rather than showing all customers the same checkout page, Checkout 2.0 can help online retailers to customise the experience based on each shopper's purchase history, showing them other things they might like to buy or understanding how a customer might want to pay.

It's a process that might sound quite familiar to those who shop with Amazon, but Bolt & Palantir hope to bring this tool to online retailers of all shapes and sizes.

For merchants, it could be a powerful tool for increasing conversion and reducing processing costs. For shoppers, it could mean a faster, smarter, more intuitive experience with native crypto support and real-time payment flexibility.

"This partnership brings together the scale and shopper intelligence of Bolt's platform with Palantir's proven decisioning systems to deliver superior outcomes across every transaction," explains Ted Mabrey, Global Head of Commercial at Palantir.

"Checkout 2.0 represents the best of both worlds — and the future of commerce personalisation."

A technology built on data

Through its work with a long list of high profile retailers, including Revolve, Kendra Scott and Benefit, Bolt has developed a database it calls the 'Universal Shopper Network'.

Since the company was founded in 2014, it has collected the data of more than 80 million consumers across the US, which helps the firm to create an accurate picture of each shopper and their habits. This data will be the engine of Checkout 2.0.

On the other side of the equation, Palantir's own technology will be used to analyse this data. Its advanced decisioning engine will be put to work, helping Checkout 2.0 to modify digital checkout pages in real-time.

"Our partnership with Palantir addresses one of the biggest challenges in modern commerce: turning mountains of shopper data into real-time, actionable intelligence," explains Ryan Breslow, Founder & CEO of Bolt.

How Checkout 2.0 works

Checkout 2.0 is designed to make checkout pages completely unique, depending on the person that uses a site connected to it.

In practice, a customer who frequently buys cosmetics on their mobile phone and prefers to use Apple Pay will be presented with a checkout flow that might upsell other beauty products and know what kind of payment method to recommend.

"Operational integration of Bolt and Palantir reduces friction for shoppers and complexity for merchants while providing a foundation to accelerate retail into the age of AI," explains Ted.

How Checkout 2.0 was built

The technical architecture of Checkout 2.0 incorporates a few key components.

Each shopper has a profile that is updated any time they complete a transaction, as well as how they complete said transaction.

This information is fed into the payment method that Checkout 2.0 presents customers with.

Interestingly, the system also includes native cryptocurrency payment support, helping customers use cryptocurrency in transactions.

This feature pulls from Bolt's 'SuperApp' — an all-in-one crypto hub.

Rolling out the new tech

Bolt plans to integrate the new checkout system across enterprise retailers using Palantir's platform for scaling.

Together, the pair will be able to reach a huge array of retailers and customers.

For Ryan, though, it is more important that Checkout 2.0 has the potential to transform the way online shopping works.

"Together, we're tackling outdated, one-size-fits-all checkout experiences and replacing them with a smarter, more adaptive flow that actually responds to individual preferences and behaviour," he says.

"This is not just an upgrade—it's a reimagining of what online checkout can be."

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