Walmart CEO on AI: "Every job we've got is going to change"
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Walmart is continuing to grow its AI tools. Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon says the world's largest retailer is going "on offense" with artificial intelligence — reshaping work, leadership and purpose for 2.1 million employees.
Why it matters: AI will create as many new roles as it replaces, McMillon said Monday — if workers are trained, trusted and equipped to use it.
- "Every job we've got is going to change in some way — whether it's getting the shopping carts off the parking lot, or the way our technologists work, or certainly the way leadership roles change," he said at a Harvard Business Review event.
The big picture: McMillon's remarks come weeks after Walmart announced a partnership with OpenAI to let customers plan meals, restock essentials and check out directly through ChatGPT — also known as "agentic commerce."
- The move signals Walmart's shift from static search bars to personalized, conversational shopping — where AI anticipates what customers need before they type a word.
Zoom in: Inside the company, Walmart has given employees access to ChatGPT and other generative tools to help them learn and experiment as AI reshapes the business, McMillon said.
- He said the company will be using its Walmart Academies program to create specific programs so that people can learn and understand what capabilities they need to be building.
- The academies are also producing certified technicians who maintain the company's automated systems — training that McMillon said could one day grow into a profit center.
- The retailer also created a new executive role, filled by former Instacart and Uber leader Daniel Danker, to accelerate its AI transformation.
What they're saying: "What we want to do is equip everybody to be able to make the most of the new tools that are available, learn, adapt, add value, drive growth — and still be a really large employer years from now," McMillon said.
- "We're not a company that should be investing to build all this compute and invent the frontier," he added. "We need to be the best in the world at application."
