Walmart's Dan Bartlett says AI will supercharge corporate affairs
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Dan Bartlett, Walmart's executive vice president of corporate affairs, with Axios' Eleanor Hawkins at the MB Live event in Austin. Photos: Stacey Conant Photo: Stacey Conant
Communicators tend to gripe about how they deserve to have a seat at the corporate leadership table. It's a tired trope that I'm, quite frankly, sick of writing about.
- Yes, but: When Walmart executive vice president of corporate affairs Dan Bartlett told me the "public" has a seat at the table, it made me pause.
Why it matters: Corporate affairs and communications teams show their value by acting as strategic liaisons between a company and its most important audiences, namely the public.
Case in point: In the early 2000s, Walmart's reputation plummeted after years of not paying attention to the public's expectations, Bartlett told a room of roughly 200 comms professionals this week at our MB Live event.
- "When big decisions are made within the conference rooms of executive management teams, there's always a lawyer present, there's always a banker, but who's representing the public and their perspective? Because they have the biggest say in whether it's going to work or not," Bartlett said.
- "More companies are understanding that the public has a seat at the table," he added.
The big picture: Companies are on the receiving end of competing demands from employees, consumers, shareholders and regulators in Washington.
- This came to a head this year as corporate America began rolling back DEI or ESG commitments following pressure from the Trump administration.
- In response, employee backlash and consumer boycotts ensued, and in some cases market value dropped.
- Meanwhile, companies that kept their commitments saw higher reputation scores in 2025, but risked putting themselves in political crosshairs.
Zoom out: The next potentially polarizing issue facing corporate America is how AI will impact the American workforce.
- Business leaders have cited AI as a key reason for hiring freezes and layoffs, with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon acknowledging that AI will change the way most employees work.
- As it relates to corporate affairs, Bartlett says, AI will "supercharge" the function and enable his team to "push beyond the mundane" and "elevate strategic thinking."
- "AI won't know the personality of your CEO or your CFO. It's not going to know how to persuade and influence. And really, that's our job in many respects. Yes, we're trying to persuade a reporter, but more times than not we're trying to persuade our internal clients to understand where we're coming from. And I don't think chatbots are going to do that."
What to watch: To represent the public's interest, corporate affairs and comms leaders have to understand where consumers are going for news and who's influencing them.
- According to a recent Pew Research study, over half (53%) of Americans get their news from social media. The influence of creators and independent journalists is also on the rise as trust in traditional news outlets plummets, per Gallup.
- "If you don't know the people who you're engaging with, if you don't understand where they're coming from, how do you expect to be able to influence them," Bartlett said.
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