Walmart CEO Issues Wake-Up Call on AI

 

 

“BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Walmart executives aren't sugarcoating the message: Artificial intelligence will wipe out some jobs and reshape the company's workforce.

 

Now the country's largest private employer is making plans to confront that reality.

 

"It's very clear that AI is going to change literally every job," Chief Executive Doug McMillon said last week in one of the most pointed assessments to date from a big-company CEO on AI's likely impact on employment.

 

His remarks reflect a rapid shift from just months ago in how business leaders discuss the potential human cost of the technology. Companies including Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have bluntly predicted job losses associated with AI. Some have advised other employers to prepare their workforces for change.

 

Some jobs and tasks at the retail juggernaut will be eliminated, while others will be created, McMillon said last week at Walmart's headquarters here during a workforce conference with executives from other companies. "Maybe there's a job in the world that AI won't change, but I haven't thought of it."

 

Inside Walmart, top executives have started to examine AI's implications for its workforce in nearly every high-level planning meeting. Company leaders say they are tracking which job types decrease, increase and stay steady to gauge where additional training and preparation can help workers.

 

"Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side," McMillon said.

 

For now, Walmart executives say the transformation means the size of its global workforce will stay roughly flat even as its revenue climbs. It plans to maintain its head count of around 2.1 million global workers over the next three years, but the mix of those jobs will change significantly, said Donna Morris, Walmart's chief people officer. What the composition will look like remains murky.

 

"We've got to do our homework, and so we don't have those answers," Morris said.

 

Already Walmart has built chat bots, which it calls "agents," for customers, suppliers and workers. It is also tracking an expanding share of its supply chain and product trends with AI.

 

In July, Walmart hired an executive from Instacart, Daniel Danker, to oversee those ambitions. Danker reports to McMillon. Part of his role includes working with Morris to determine how Walmart's workforce should shift.

 

Some changes are rippling across the workforce. In recent years, Walmart has automated many of its warehouses with the help of AI-related technology, triggering some job cuts, executives said. Walmart is also looking to automate some back-of-store tasks.

 

New roles have been established, too. Walmart, for example, created an "agent builder" position in August -- an employee who builds AI tools to help merchants. It expects to add people in areas like home delivery or in high-touch customer positions, such as its bakeries. The company has also added more in-store maintenance technicians and truck drivers in recent years.

 

Across the industry, the pace of change will be gradual, McMillon said. For example, customer-service tasks in call centers and through online chat functions will become more AI-dependent soon and other tasks not, McMillon said.

 

Elsewhere in the corporate world, top executives are pushing their companies to wholeheartedly embrace AI -- and quickly. Some have created internal "heat maps" to decipher which roles or tasks could be automated by AI. Others have pushed staffers to propose new projects.

 

At the agricultural company Syngenta, for example, the company has identified projects in areas like research and development and supply-chain functions that are ripe for an AI overhaul. Teams will regularly present their findings to CEO Jeff Rowe. The idea is to spotlight new approaches and identify emerging leaders who seem best equipped to embrace the technology and guide teams through it, he said.

 

"AI is just starting to ripple through the job market," said Ronnie Chatterji, OpenAI's chief economist, at the Bentonville conference. "I think 18 to 36 months, you're going to see a lot more impact." This month, OpenAI unveiled a partnership with Walmart and other companies to design an AI-training certificate program.

 

The drumbeat of warnings about AI-related job cuts has increased in recent months. Accenture [1] CEO Julie Sweet told investors on Thursday that the firm is "exiting" employees who can't be retrained for the AI age. Meanwhile, it will continue to hire people who are generative AI-fluent and retrain existing workers to serve clients in consulting and other divisions.

 

"Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.," Ford Motor Chief Executive Jim Farley said this summer.

 

At the Bentonville confab, executives from Bank of America, Blackstone and other employers sought to emphasize that, with the right training opportunities, employees could weather the AI storm. Essential human qualities, like the ability to connect with others and develop meaningful relationships, would become even more important, they said.

 

"There's nothing soft about soft skills," said Courtney della Cava, senior managing director and global head of portfolio talent and organizational performance at Blackstone. The private-equity firm said it has found that an ability to withstand change and evolve is a key quality among the top-performing leaders at its portfolio companies.

 

"Resilience is the No. 1 predictor of success," she said.

 

Though there is plenty of anxiety among workers and leaders, many executives say the U.S. labor market remains healthy and they don't anticipate widespread unemployment because of AI.

 

"I think the history of technology innovation is that people have re-skilled and have found gainful employment in other aspects of the economy," said Joe Baratta, global head of Blackstone's private-equity business.” [2]

 

1. Accenture is a global professional services firm that helps organizations improve their performance and create value by offering services in four main areas: Strategy, Digital, Technology, and Operations. They advise companies on their business strategies, implement new digital solutions and software, build and manage technology systems (like cloud and AI), and streamline operational processes such as supply chains and customer interactions. Accenture works across various industries and uses expertise in areas like data, AI, cybersecurity, and sustainability to help clients achieve their business goals.

 

2. Walmart CEO Issues Wake-Up Call on AI. Nassauer, Sarah; Cutter, Chip.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 29 Sep 2025: A1.