Walmart employs 2.1 million people globally, with about 1.6 million associates based in the U.S.
Key Takeaways
- Walmart, the largest employer in the U.S., is adjusting its workforce in response to AI.
- Walmart’s CEO, Doug McMillon, recently stated that AI would transform all jobs.
- 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.
“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.
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.
In July, Walmart announced new AI chatbots for customers, employees, engineers, and sellers.
Key Takeaways
- Walmart, the largest employer in the U.S., is adjusting its workforce in response to AI.
- Walmart’s CEO, Doug McMillon, recently stated that AI would transform all jobs.
- 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.”
