Walmart CEO Predicts AI Will Transform Every Job, Plans for Workforce Adaptation

Walmart CEO expects AI will 'change literally every job' - not just engineering

Recent data shows that AI could transform more jobs than it replaces. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon has good news and bad news for the more than two million global workers employed by his company. The bad news is that AI is rapidly going to transform all of those employees' roles, and soon. The good news is that, in his view, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be out of a job. Also: Nearly everything you've heard about AI and job cuts is wrong - here's why Speaking at a conference in Bentonville, Arkansas, home of Walmart's headquarters, last week, McMillon told the audience that it's by now "very clear that AI is going to change literally every job," according to a Friday report from The Wall Street Journal. Walmart is the largest employer in the world, so when McMillon unequivocally declares his conviction that AI is going to reshape his company from the ground up, that's a vision for the future with ramifications that will be felt by millions of workers globally, at every rung of the socioeconomic ladder. Thus far, many predictions about the potential for AI to transform the job market have focused on white-collar jobs, especially software engineering. Also: Will AI replace software engineers? It depends on who you ask It's true that the growing availability and sophistication of AI coding tools does seem to be one of the factors that's been making it more difficult for young computer science grads to find work in the tech industry. At the same time, however, the race among tech companies to build ever-more powerful AI models has also sparked a talent war that has hugely inflated the salaries of some of the industry's more established engineers. Some new AI tools, especially those that are designed to generate video, could also replace many creative roles in industries like filmmaking and advertising. Also: OpenAI tested GPT-5, Claude, and Gemini on real-world tasks - the results were surprising McMillon's prediction, however, paints a much more unilateral and democratic picture of the future of AI-powered automation: it isn't just salaried office workers who will feel the effects of AI, but also warehouse workers, checkout cashiers, and millions of others, many of whom are already working paycheck-to-paycheck. That said, his vision for the future is more about transformation than replacement. In his view, as business leaders rush to onboard new AI tools, they also have a responsibility to provide the requisite upskilling to workers. "We've got to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side," he said at the Bentonville conference. Also: Got AI skills? You can earn 43% more in your next job - and not just for tech work This language portrays AI not as a giant ax that will cleave many workers from their livelihoods, but as a moment of societal change -- a chasm which executives should help their employees cross safely. In the absence of robust federal oversight of AI, the onus of responsibility for managing the technology's impacts upon the labor market will likely fall disproportionately on employers' shoulders; The Trump administration's AI Action Plan, a set of policies released earlier this summer, emphasized AI upskilling without outlining any protections for workers displaced by the technology. McMillon's stance is supported by recent data from Indeed, which indicates that AI is transforming specific job requirements more than it's replacing jobs themselves. Similarly, a recent report shared exclusively with ZDNET found that only 11% of executives surveyed believe that AI will significantly reduce their workforce, while 84% said they expect the technology to alter the nature of existing roles within their companies. Elsewhere, recent research from OpenAI found several frontier models performed competitively with human experts on economically viable work tasks that contribute to US GDP. Also: The best free AI courses and certificates in 2025 - and I've tried many In that same vein, Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon (the second-biggest employer in the world) recently told CNBC that AI will lead to "fewer people doing some of the jobs," while also creating new ones.

Walmart CEO: 'AI is literally going to change every job' -- how the best employees can stand out

Walmart Inc. President and CEO Doug McMillon delivers a keynote address during CES 2024 at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas on January 9, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Workers in every type of role must be prepared to adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace, says Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, leader of the nation's largest private employer. "It's very clear that AI is going to change literally every job," McMillon told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that published on Friday, adding: "Maybe there's a job in the world that AI won't change, but I haven't thought of it." McMillon joined other high-profile CEOs who have signaled plans to reduce their corporate workforces in the coming years as they integrate more AI tools and agents -- a growing list that includes Amazon's Andy Jassy and Ford's Jim Farley. Walmart plans to freeze the company's global headcount of 2.1 million workers for the next three years while still forecasting revenue growth the company says will come from wider adoption of AI technologies, according to the Journal. McMillon expects white-collar office jobs to be among the first to be affected, as Walmart rolls out more AI-powered chatbots and other tools to handle tasks related to customer service and supply chain tracking. Ultimately, even workers in Walmart stores and warehouses will eventually see more tasks taken on by AI tools, and those remaining workers will also need to be willing to embrace the new technologies to stay relevant, McMillon said in another recent interview, published Sunday by the Associated Press. "I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly," he said, reiterating his expectation that "basically, every job gets changed."

How Walmart plans to prepare America's largest private workforce for an AI-driven future

BENTONVILLE, Ark (AP) -- As artificial intelligence and demographic changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader labor force might need for the future. Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college. The retailer already has launched its own employee training and certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire. Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier to manage. MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that's helping some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic about it because they've seen new tools that they're receiving that are making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps. And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about the future of what their life can look like. MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly. And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And I think the best way to think about it is getting "plussed up." So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been? As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally), something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home office jobs probably happens faster. MCMILLON: I don't know there'll be a moment where we all have clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's the way that we plan to lead through this. MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same (total) number of people working in Walmart U.S. How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow. MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers. Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging job. And it's a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason. You're interacting with the community with large numbers of people. You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are valuable. They always have been, and that'll be even more true in the future. MCMILLON: To some degree, it's a lack of awareness. I think most Americans probably don't know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech. The same thing's true for our drivers. So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs. MCMILLON: We've been able to do that so far, and I expect that we'll continue to find great people that want to join the company and our turnover rates are down, which is helpful. MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do that is to work together and to share information and learn together. It'll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. The change that's happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in, learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody involved.

Walmart CEO explains what the most coveted skills are and points to store managers | Fortune

As artificial intelligence and demographic changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader labor force might need for the future. Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college. The retailer already has launched its own employee trainingand certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire. Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier to manage. MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that's helping some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic about it because they've seen new tools that they're receiving that are making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps. And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about the future of what their life can look like. MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly. And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And I think the best way to think about it is getting "plussed up." So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been? As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally), something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home office jobs probably happens faster. MCMILLON: I don't know there'll be a moment where we all have clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's the way that we plan to lead through this. MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same (total) number of people working in Walmart U.S. How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow. MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers. Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging job. And it's a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason. You're interacting with the community with large numbers of people. You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are valuable. They always have been, and that'll be even more true in the future. MCMILLON: To some degree, it's a lack of awareness. I think most Americans probably don't know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech. The same thing's true for our drivers. So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs. MCMILLON: We've been able to do that so far, and I expect that we'll continue to find great people that want to join the company and our turnover rates are down, which is helpful. MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do that is to work together and to share information and learn together. It'll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. The change that's happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in, learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody involved.

Walmart CEO wants 'everybody to make it to the other side' and the retail giant will keep headcount flat for now even as AI changes every job | Fortune

CEOs aren't shying away from what labor market experts have been saying for months: AI is transforming the workforce. From bankers to consulting firms, business leaders are restructuring rapidly as AI adoption becomes mission critical. CEOs of global companies expect AI investments to more than double in two years, and 61% are actively adopting AI agents at scale, according to a May IBM study. "It's very clear that AI is going to change literally every job," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said this week during a workforce conference with other business execs, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. And AI has already changed the global retailer, which has developed chat bots to help customers, suppliers, and merchants. The company has also created new roles like an "agent developer," whose job description is to build AI tools to help automate workflow throughout the company. Yet as AI automates some tasks for Walmart workers, that won't translate to mass layoffs. "Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side," McMillon said. Some jobs and tasks at Walmart will be eliminated, but others will be added, he added. Walmart plans to maintain a head count of around 2.1 million workers across the world over the next three years, though the mix of these jobs are expected to change, Walmart's chief people officer Donna Morris said, according to The Journal. To help determine how to train and prepare workers, the company is tracking job types to see which increase, decrease and hold steady. The headcount retention is a stark distinction from other corporate messaging recently. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said Thursday that rapid AI adoption drove layoffs this year and warned that more exits are possible where reskilling employees is not viable. And in May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said AI could wipe out roughly half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. The cuts could come within five years and cause unemployment to spike as high as 20%, he added. But OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last month he's envious of young people because in 10 years' time, college graduates will be working "some completely new, exciting, super well-paid" job in space, and current early-career work will look "boring" by comparison. It's unclear how AI will change Walmart's labor force in three years. Chief people officer Morris said company leaders have to do their "homework" to find those answers. But according to Walmart's CEO, the company will continue relying on face-to-face interaction even as it leans more on AI. In January, tech company Symbotic announced Walmart would pay it $520 million to build out an AI-enabled robotics platform to improve shopping convenience via accelerated online pickup and delivery at stores. Other vendors have also offered robot workers to the company. Yet "until we're serving humanoid robots and they have the ability to spend money, we're serving people," McMillon said. "We are going to put people in front of people."

How Walmart plans to prepare America's largest private workforce for an AI-driven future

BENTONVILLE, Ark -- As artificial intelligence and demographic changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader labor force might need for the future. Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college. The retailer already has launched its own employee training and certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire. Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier to manage. MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that's helping some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic about it because they've seen new tools that they're receiving that are making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps. And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about the future of what their life can look like. MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly. And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And I think the best way to think about it is getting "plussed up." So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been? As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally), something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home office jobs probably happens faster. MCMILLON: I don't know there'll be a moment where we all have clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's the way that we plan to lead through this. MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same (total) number of people working in Walmart U.S. How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow. MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers. Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging job. And it's a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason. You're interacting with the community with large numbers of people. You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are valuable. They always have been, and that'll be even more true in the future. MCMILLON: To some degree, it's a lack of awareness. I think most Americans probably don't know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech. The same thing's true for our drivers. So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs. MCMILLON: We've been able to do that so far, and I expect that we'll continue to find great people that want to join the company and our turnover rates are down, which is helpful. MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do that is to work together and to share information and learn together. It'll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. The change that's happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in, learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody involved.

How Walmart plans to prepare America's largest private workforce for an AI-driven future

BENTONVILLE, Ark (AP) -- As artificial intelligence and demographic changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader labor force might need for the future. Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college. The retailer already has launched its own employee training and certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire. Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. AP: What's your view of the overall health of the job market, given the uncertainty about tariffs and the economy? MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier to manage. AP: What are the biggest factors affecting Walmart workers? Fear of AI, or their paychecks not keeping pace with inflation? MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that's helping some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic about it because they've seen new tools that they're receiving that are making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps. And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about the future of what their life can look like. AP: Which jobs might be eliminated or added because of AI? MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly. And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And I think the best way to think about it is getting "plussed up." So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been? As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally), something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home office jobs probably happens faster. AP: When will you have a clearer idea? MCMILLON: I don't know there'll be a moment where we all have clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's the way that we plan to lead through this. AP: Do you think AI will result in fewer workers at Walmart? MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same (total) number of people working in Walmart U.S. How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow. AP: What do you think are the most coveted skills? MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers. Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging job. And it's a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason. You're interacting with the community with large numbers of people. You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are valuable. They always have been, and that'll be even more true in the future. AP: Why are there shortages in roles like maintenance technicians? MCMILLON: To some degree, it's a lack of awareness. I think most Americans probably don't know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech. The same thing's true for our drivers. So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs. AP: Do you think Walmart will be able to fill such gaps as the immigrant pool shrinks? MCMILLON: We've been able to do that so far, and I expect that we'll continue to find great people that want to join the company and our turnover rates are down, which is helpful. AP: How critical is this initiative focused on skills-based hiring? MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do that is to work together and to share information and learn together. It'll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. The change that's happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in, learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody involved.

With 3 Short Words, the CEO of Walmart Just Gave a Very Blunt Warning About AI. Here's What You Need to Know Today

Here's a fun, instructive, and ultimately very relevant rabbit hole. Spend a minute or two perusing some of the classic "supposedly expert people who were wildly skeptical about the concept of the Internet" moments from just before it took over everything. Examples: Actually, let's just quote from that one for a minute: Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works. We can laugh about those responses today. But I find myself wondering if skeptics about how artificial intelligence is changing the world today might be doing something very similar. Reason for bringing this up: A series of timely interviews with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who runs America's largest private employer, and who just gave some of the most direct assessments we've heard yet from a major CEO about AI's impact on employment. "It's very clear that AI is going to change literally every job," he told executives at Walmart's Arkansas headquarters during a workforce conference, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. "Maybe there's a job in the world that AI won't change, but I haven't thought of it." Literally every job. In a separate interview with the Associated Press, McMillon laid out what this means in practice: "I think the best way to think about it is getting 'plussed up.' So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been?" By and large, McMillon said it's his goal is to keep Walmart's 2.1 million headcount at the same level at least over the next three years. But the mix of those jobs will change dramatically. "We've got to do our homework, and so we don't have those answers," Donna Morris, Walmart's chief people officer, said at the same conference. Of course, McMillon isn't alone: Oh, and as my colleague Justin Bariso adroitly examined, at Opendoor, the real estate technology company, new CEO Kaz Nejatian sent a companywide memo establishing in which he said "Default to AI" as the first line in everyone's job expectation. And: This is anxiety-inducing stuff. So what should you actually do as a business owner, so that years from now people aren't trotting out your anachronistic and skeptical reaction to the dawn of AI? I think at least three things: In short, transparency beats terror. McMillon put it well: "Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side." Talk to your team "real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it," as he told the AP. Nearly half of technology leaders say AI is "fully integrated" into their companies' core business strategy. This train has left the station. The question isn't whether to adopt AI -- it's how quickly and how well. At least for now, that includes genuine human relationships. McMillon made this point when he noted that companies have recently pitched robot workers to Walmart. His response? "Until we're serving humanoid robots and they have the ability to spend money, we're serving people. We are going to put people in front of people." That's the sweet spot: Using AI to handle the tasks it's good at so humans can focus on what they're uniquely good at. Change is coming. Actually, scratch that -- change is here. The CEOs running the world's largest companies aren't sugarcoating it anymore. They're telling us exactly what they see: AI is going to reshape every job, eliminate some positions, create others, and fundamentally change how we work. The good news? You still have time to get ahead of this. But less time than you did yesterday. Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you'll never miss a post. The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

How Walmart Plans to Prepare America's Largest Private Workforce for an AI-Driven Future

BENTONVILLE, Ark (AP) -- As artificial intelligence and demographic changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader labor force might need for the future. Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college. The retailer already has launched its own employee training and certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire. Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. AP: What's your view of the overall health of the job market, given the uncertainty about tariffs and the economy? MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier to manage. AP: What are the biggest factors affecting Walmart workers? Fear of AI, or their paychecks not keeping pace with inflation? MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that's helping some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic about it because they've seen new tools that they're receiving that are making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps. And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about the future of what their life can look like. AP: Which jobs might be eliminated or added because of AI? MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly. And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And I think the best way to think about it is getting "plussed up." So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been? As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally), something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home office jobs probably happens faster. AP: When will you have a clearer idea? MCMILLON: I don't know there'll be a moment where we all have clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's the way that we plan to lead through this. AP: Do you think AI will result in fewer workers at Walmart? MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same (total) number of people working in Walmart U.S. How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow. AP: What do you think are the most coveted skills? MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers. Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging job. And it's a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason. You're interacting with the community with large numbers of people. You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are valuable. They always have been, and that'll be even more true in the future. AP: Why are there shortages in roles like maintenance technicians? MCMILLON: To some degree, it's a lack of awareness. I think most Americans probably don't know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech. The same thing's true for our drivers. So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs. AP: Do you think Walmart will be able to fill such gaps as the immigrant pool shrinks? MCMILLON: We've been able to do that so far, and I expect that we'll continue to find great people that want to join the company and our turnover rates are down, which is helpful. AP: How critical is this initiative focused on skills-based hiring? MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do that is to work together and to share information and learn together. It'll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. The change that's happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in, learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody involved.

The CEO of the Biggest Employer in the Country Says AI Will Transform 'Literally Every Job' at His Company (and Yours, Too)

The company plans to maintain the size of its global workforce over the next three years, but will adapt to AI by changing the mix of specific jobs it offers. Walmart is preparing for a future where AI will impact "literally every job," according to CEO Doug McMillon. Last week, McMillon spoke at Walmart's Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters during a conference with other executives from other companies. According to The Wall Street Journal, McMillon said that Walmart would eliminate some jobs over the next three years and create others, but that overall, AI would have a profound impact on every occupation. It's one of the strongest public acknowledgements from a corporate leader about AI's influence on employment, per WSJ. "It's very clear that AI is going to change literally every job," McMillon said at the conference, adding, "Maybe there's a job in the world that AI won't change, but I haven't thought of it." Related: Walmart Is Raising Prices, According to the Company's CEO. Here's When. McMillon said he doesn't envision mass layoffs, but rather changes in internal composition. Walmart, which is the largest employer in the U.S. and the world with 1.6 million U.S. employees and 2.1 million global employees, intends to keep headcount relatively stable as its workforce composition changes due to AI. McMillon says that the AI changes will be gradual, affecting certain industries more than others. He said, for example, that call center tasks could become more quickly automated, while other divisions lag. Walmart's Chief People Officer, Donna Morris, told WSJ that the company doesn't yet know how its composition will transform. Related: Walmart Wants to Help U.S. Entrepreneurs Get Their Products on Its Shelves. Here's How to Get Your Stuff in the Door. "We don't have those answers," Morris said. WSJ reports that Walmart executives are looking into AI's impact on the workforce and assessing which types of jobs will increase, decrease, and stay the same due to the technology. The goal, according to McMillon, is "to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side." Some business leaders have made starker predictions about AI's impact on jobs. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in May that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs within the next five years, while Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley said in July that AI would replace "literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S." And businesses are already expecting cuts. JPMorgan Chase's CEO of Consumer and Community Banking, Marianne Lake, predicted in May that AI would enable the bank to cut headcount by 10% in the operations and account services divisions. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also warned employees in a memo to staff in June that he expects Amazon's corporate workforce to diminish over "the next few years" as AI takes over tasks. Related: At 24, She Immigrated to the U.S. and Worked at Walmart. Then She Turned Savings Into a 'Magic' Side Hustle, Surpassing $1 Million This Year. Walmart, meanwhile, has already taken steps to automate its workforce. The retail giant added robots to its warehouses several years ago to take over tasks like unloading trucks, leading to "some job cuts," according to executives. Walmart cut 1,500 corporate jobs in May and eliminated hundreds more jobs in July, but it's unclear if those layoffs were due to AI. The company has also simultaneously created new roles, like an "agent builder" position last month, for employees who create AI tools.

How Walmart plans to prepare America's largest private workforce for an AI-driven future - The Economic Times

Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college.As artificial intelligence and demographic changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader labor force might need for the future. Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college. The retailer already has launched its own employee training and certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire. Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. AP: What's your view of the overall health of the job market, given the uncertainty about tariffs and the economy? MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier to manage. AP: What are the biggest factors affecting Walmart workers? Fear of AI, or their paychecks not keeping pace with inflation? MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that's helping some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic about it because they've seen new tools that they're receiving that are making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps. And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about the future of what their life can look like. AP: Which jobs might be eliminated or added because of AI? MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly. And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And I think the best way to think about it is getting "plussed up." So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been? As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally), something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home office jobs probably happens faster. AP: When will you have a clearer idea? MCMILLON: I don't know there'll be a moment where we all have clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's the way that we plan to lead through this. AP: Do you think AI will result in fewer workers at Walmart? MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same (total) number of people working in Walmart U.S. How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow. AP: What do you think are the most coveted skills? MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers. Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging job. And it's a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason. You're interacting with the community with large numbers of people. You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are valuable. They always have been, and that'll be even more true in the future. AP: Why are there shortages in roles like maintenance technicians? MCMILLON: To some degree, it's a lack of awareness. I think most Americans probably don't know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech. The same thing's true for our drivers. So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs. AP: Do you think Walmart will be able to fill such gaps as the immigrant pool shrinks? MCMILLON: We've been able to do that so far, and I expect that we'll continue to find great people that want to join the company and our turnover rates are down, which is helpful. AP: How critical is this initiative focused on skills-based hiring? MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do that is to work together and to share information and learn together. It'll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. The change that's happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in, learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody involved.

Walmart's CEO Just Gave a Sobering Prediction About AI. The Time to Prepare Is Now

Doug McMillon, as the CEO of Walmart, runs the largest private employer in the United States. When he talks about the future of work, it isn't theory -- it's the lived reality of millions of families. In fact, more than 2.1 million people around the world get a paycheck from Walmart. That's why it matters that, speaking at a workforce conference in Bentonville last week, Walmart's CEO didn't mince words about artificial intelligence. "It's very clear that AI is going to change literally every job," McMillon said, according to The Wall Street Journal. "Maybe there's a job in the world that AI won't change, but I haven't thought of it." Look, a lot of people have predicted that AI will change the way we work in the future. For that matter, people are predicting that AI will change the way we do pretty much everything. It's already changing the way we look for and process information. And it's having a real impact on creative work, from generating ideas to editing photos. But this is different. This isn't some kind of edge case where AI is doing something that benefits niche work. This is a sober assessment from someone who thinks about the livelihoods of millions of people, from truck drivers to warehouse workers and store managers. So far, much of the AI conversation around work has been about replacing humans with robots or computers capable of doing everything from menial tasks to coding. The pitch is that companies will save extraordinary costs as humans are replaced with AI that can do more work, faster, and cheaper. The fear among many employees is that automation will come for knowledge work the same way robots came for manufacturing. McMillon's warning is different: AI isn't confined to Silicon Valley jobs. It's coming for the retail floor, the supply chain, the back office, and the call center. For example, AI can already predict what items a store will sell and when, automatically adjusting orders. That doesn't eliminate the need for employees -- but it will definitely change what their job looks like. McMillon also made another point: Walmart's overall headcount will likely stay flat, even as its revenue grows. That -- if you think about it -- isn't just surprising, it's incredibly revealing. The assumption is that AI equals fewer jobs. Instead, Walmart expects them to be different. To make that happen, the company is mapping which roles will shrink, which will grow, and which will stay stable. The strategy is to invest in reskilling so workers can move into the new jobs AI creates. "We've got to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side," McMillon said. This is the part of the warning many leaders ignore. Pretending AI won't affect your workforce is irresponsible. Pretending AI only means job cuts is short-sighted. The challenge is to figure out what your workforce looks like and what you need to do to make the transition. There are a few reasons that Walmart's perspective matters. The obvious one is because it's the largest private employer in the world. It is the company that, single-handedly, affects the greatest number of people when it makes a change to its workforce. That's why AI isn't just a technology problem; it's a leadership problem. It's one thing for McMillon to say "AI will change every job." It's another thing to commit that Walmart will still employ millions of people, even if the jobs look different. He's saying the responsibility to guide workers through change rests squarely on leaders' shoulders. That's a message worth hearing far beyond the company's Bentonville headquarters. AI is often pitched as a productivity story. That's true, but the bigger story is about people. Technology that changes "literally every job" also changes lives, families, and communities. The ripple effect is enormous when you're a company the size of Walmart. By the way, Walmart isn't perfect, but its approach offers a model. Instead of framing AI as cost-cutting, it's framing AI as a transformation challenge. That may seem like semantics, but reframing the conversation makes all the difference between a fearful workforce and a resilient one. McMillon's prediction is sobering precisely because it's credible. He isn't selling software or trying to impress investors. He's planning for how millions of his own employees will navigate the AI future. If you're leading a business -- whether that's 20 people or 20,000 -- the message is pretty clear. AI is going to change every job. Your job is to be thinking hard about what that means for your company. It means thinking about how it will impact your people and come up with a plan. It seems like almost everyone agrees that AI will change almost everything about the way we all work. The only question is whether you'll help your people prepare or leave them to figure it out on their own. By then, it will be too late. That's why every leader should start now. Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you'll never miss a post. The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Walmart Plans To Grow Revenue Without Hiring More People, Pointing To AI As The Future Of Its Workforce - Ford Motor (NYSE:F), Walmart (NYSE:WMT)

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is being blunt about the impact of artificial intelligence on its workforce: AI will change almost every job. And the company isn't pretending otherwise. "It's very clear that AI is going to change literally every job. Maybe there's a job in the world that AI won't change, but I haven't thought of it," said CEO Doug McMillon at the retail giant's Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, according to the Wall Street Journal. AI Is Reshaping Walmart's Strategy, Not Shrinking Its Ambitions According to the Journal, McMillon doesn't expect Walmart to grow its workforce over the next three years, even though it plans to increase revenue. The company currently employs around 2.1 million people worldwide. Don't Miss: Power Outages Up 20% a Year -- Here's the U.S. Company Helping Americans Go Off-Grid Safely If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? Chief People Officer Donna Morris reportedly said the total headcount will stay roughly flat, but the types of jobs will change. "We've got to do our homework, and so we don't have those answers," Morris said. Walmart has already started using AI tools in customer service, supply chain management, and internal operations. It has built chatbots, called "agents," for customers, suppliers, and employees. Some warehouse roles have been automated in recent years, resulting in job cuts, according to the Journal. The company is also looking to automate certain back-of-store tasks. At the same time, Walmart is creating new positions, such as "agent builders" who develop AI tools for internal teams. Other roles in areas like home delivery, in-store maintenance, and bakery operations are expected to expand. Trending: Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund Just Backed This Farmland Manager -- Accredited Investors Can Join the Same Fund McMillon emphasized that change will be gradual, not overnight. He also made it clear that Walmart will continue to prioritize human workers in customer-facing roles. "Until we're serving humanoid robots and they have the ability to spend money, we're serving people," he said. "We are going to put people in front of people." The Journal reports that Walmart is taking a detailed approach by tracking which job categories are growing, shrinking, or holding steady. The goal is to prepare employees for transitions through retraining. "Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side," McMillon said. See Also: Shaquille O'Neal Wants People to Take Heart Health Seriously -- This AI-ECG Could Make That Easier Other major employers are saying the quiet part out loud, too. "Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.," Ford (NYSE: F) CEO Jim Farley recently said in an interview at The Aspen Institute While the long-term effects of AI are still unclear, the message from Walmart is not. It's preparing for a future where revenue grows without a bigger headcount -- but with a very different workforce. Read Next: Have $100k+ to invest? Charlie Munger says that's the toughest milestone -- don't stall now. Get matched with a fiduciary advisor and keep building Image: Shutterstock FFord Motor Co$12.080.58%OverviewWMTWalmart Inc$102.84-0.31%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Walmart warns AI will reshape every job, pledges to retrain workers as roles evolve (WMT:NYSE)

Create a free Seeking Alpha account to access breaking news and valuable research tools " Walmart (NYSE:WMT), the nation's biggest private employer, is preparing for sweeping workforce changes driven by artificial intelligence. Chief Executive Doug McMillon said that AI will alter "virtually every job," acknowledging that some roles will disappear while new ones are created, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Executives are mapping out which positions may shrink expand, or remain steady to guide retraining efforts. "Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side," McMillon said at a workforce conference in Bentonville, Arkansas. For now, the retailer expects its global head count of roughly 2.1 million employees to stay flat over the next three years, even as revenue grows. But the makeup of those jobs will shift, said Chief People Officer Donna Morris. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) already has rolled out AI-powered chatbots for customers, suppliers and staff, and created a new "agent builder" role to design such tools. While automation has cut some warehouse jobs, the company has added workers in delivery, in-store maintenance, and trucking. McMillon emphasized that people will continue to serve customers directly, rejecting the idea of humanoid robots in stores. The conversation reflects a broader corporate reckoning with AI's impact on employment. Leaders at companies from Ford (F) to J.P. Morgan (JPM) have forecast significant job losses, while others, including Accenture (ACN) and Blackstone (BX), are stressing retraining and resilience. OpenAI economist Ronnie Chatterji told the conference that AI's effects will accelerate in the next 18 to 36 months. Despite anxiety, some executives argue the labor market can absorb the disruption. Blackstone's (BX) Joe Baratta noted that past technological shifts have ultimately created new opportunities, the Journal reported. More on Walmart Today's chaos. Tomorrow's opportunity Seeking Alpha helps you make sense of the headlines. New! Get unlimited breaking stock news for free -- so you can stay on track for a stronger financial future.

Walmart CEO issues ominous warning that AI will 'change literally...

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon warned that AI will "change literally every job" as the retail giant looks to automate more roles and keep the size of its workforce flat over the next few years. Artificial intelligence will erase some jobs and tasks at the country's largest private employer, while also creating a few new ones, McMillon said this week during a conference with executives from other companies at Walmart's Bentonville, Ark. headquarters. "Maybe there's a job in the world that AI won't change, but I haven't thought of it," he said, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Executives from companies like Ford, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have already issued ominous warnings about AI's potential to slam the workforce. That impact has been a top concern for Walmart executives, who have been discussing the potential role of AI during nearly every high-level meeting, according to the Journal. The company has been tracking which job types decrease, increase and stay steady in order to gauge where additional training can help prepare workers for AI's onslaught, the report said. "Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side," McMillon said. Walmart's global workforce of roughly 2.1 million workers is expected to remain flat over the next three years, even as revenue rises - but the mix of jobs will change significantly, Donna Morris, Walmart's chief people officer, told the outlet. As for what that new mix will look like, Morris said: "We've got to do our homework, and so we don't have those answers." Walmart has already built AI chatbots - called "agents" - that can aid customers, suppliers and workers with questions. But not every AI advancement is a fit for the company. Several firms have pitched robot workers, for example, to Walmart, McMillon said during the conference. "Until we're serving humanoid robots and they have the ability to spend money, we're serving people," he said. "We are going to put people in front of people." Walmart has started using AI to track parts of its supply chain and gather data on product trends. In July, the company hired Daniel Danker, an executive at Instacart, to manage these AI ambitions. A key part of Danker's job involves working with Morris to decide how Walmart's workforce should shift over time. The company has already cut some jobs as it automated many of its warehouses with the use of AI, according to executives. Now it's looking to automate some back-of-store tasks, as well. It also created a new "agent builder" role last month to hire employees that can build the AI agent tools. Walmart is also planning to hire some more human workers in home delivery and its customer positions, like bakeries, and it has added more in-store maintenance technicians and truck drivers in recent years. But AI-related changes are on their way, though they will be gradual, McMillon said. Customer service roles in call centers and online chat rooms, for example, will quickly become more AI-dependent, while it will take longer for other tasks, he added.

How Walmart plans to prepare America's largest private workforce for an AI-driven future

BENTONVILLE, Ark (AP) -- As artificial intelligence and demographic changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader labor force might need for the future. Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college. The retailer already has launched its own employee training and certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire. Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. AP: What's your view of the overall health of the job market, given the uncertainty about tariffs and the economy? MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier to manage. AP: What are the biggest factors affecting Walmart workers? Fear of AI, or their paychecks not keeping pace with inflation? MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that's helping some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic about it because they've seen new tools that they're receiving that are making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps. And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about the future of what their life can look like. AP: Which jobs might be eliminated or added because of AI? MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly. And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And I think the best way to think about it is getting "plussed up." So how can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would've otherwise been? As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally), something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home office jobs probably happens faster. AP: When will you have a clearer idea? MCMILLON: I don't know there'll be a moment where we all have clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we're learning and what we're doing and why we're doing it. That's the way that we plan to lead through this. AP: Do you think AI will result in fewer workers at Walmart? MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same (total) number of people working in Walmart U.S. How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow. AP: What do you think are the most coveted skills? MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers. Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging job. And it's a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason. You're interacting with the community with large numbers of people. You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are valuable. They always have been, and that'll be even more true in the future. AP: Why are there shortages in roles like maintenance technicians? MCMILLON: To some degree, it's a lack of awareness. I think most Americans probably don't know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech. The same thing's true for our drivers. So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs. AP: Do you think Walmart will be able to fill such gaps as the immigrant pool shrinks? MCMILLON: We've been able to do that so far, and I expect that we'll continue to find great people that want to join the company and our turnover rates are down, which is helpful. AP: How critical is this initiative focused on skills-based hiring? MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do that is to work together and to share information and learn together. It'll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And that's ultimately what we're trying to do. The change that's happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in, learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody involved.