Walmart boss hints at a major retail change — one that could change how you shop

The impact of AI on Walmart's workforce has come into focus after its CEO, Doug McMillon, warned 2 million employees about it. He has shared further details about how smart tools are already serving customers. Both McMillon and John Furner, who is set to become the next CEO of Walmart in February, spoke about the company's major shift to AI-powered shopping, with robust digital assistants. 

As McMillon moves toward the end of his tenure, the retailer’s third-quarter earnings show that he has achieved some of the goals he set out over a decade ago. The report showed the growth was fueled by store-fulfilled pickup and delivery, as well as the company’s third-party marketplace. Analysts suggest that much of the company's omnichannel success is credited to McMillon, who led the company into a new era powered by technology, Grocery Drive reported.

In the earnings call, McMillon told analysts that the company was well-positioned to embrace the AI disruption. “We have the ability to execute a vision that will be multimodal, more personalized,” he said. "The idea is simple that shopping anticipates you,” he added. He emphasized the retailer's hybrid advantage, with tremendous physical scale. “Being so close to people will help us with delivery speed,” he said. “We are adopting artificial intelligence in its various forms across the company,” McMillon added further, suggesting that the tools have become more of an operating layer than an experiment. He mentioned that with more than 40% of the retailer's new code AI-generated or assisted, Walmart is integrating the technology right into its core.

Incoming CEO John Furner pushed the same point, saying that AI is already doing a lot in the company. Mentioning Walmart's 'super-AI-agent', Sparky, Furner stated that it is already “taking more action on behalf of our customers,” undertaking tasks like stocking homes to recommending new products to provide frictionless shopping. “We’re using agentic AI to help people think about the things that they may want to reorder, or, in other words, give them nudges about staying in stock,” Furner told analysts, as per Grocery Drive.

McMillon also mentioned multimodal shopping, which is already active with the option for customers to “purchase items directly through ChatGPT." Apart from Sparky, the retailer has other agents in the works as well that would help suppliers, advertisers, workers, and managers with various processes. In addition to that, the president and CEO of Walmart International, Kathryn McLay, added that the retailer is able to use its international presence to test the new technologies in different markets as well. With Walmart's extensive physical presence and AI capabilities, reports suggest it is set to outperform competitors with enhanced customer service through technology.

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