Walmart CEO Doug McMillon argues that AI will impact “literally every job,” explaining that his company plans to keep its global head count roughly flat while AI changes job composition, training needs, and day‑to‑day tasks across its massive operations.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Walmart is bracing for an AI-driven transformation across its operations, with Chief Executive Doug McMillon warning that artificial intelligence will touch virtually every role. “It’s very clear that AI is going to change literally every job,” McMillon said this week at a workforce conference in Bentonville, Arkansas, signaling one of the most direct acknowledgments from a major U.S. employer about AI’s looming impact on work.
Company leaders said Walmart will hold its global workforce at around 2.1 million employees over the next three years even as revenue grows, but the composition of those jobs will change significantly. Donna Morris, Walmart’s chief people officer, emphasized that planning is underway but outcomes remain uncertain: “We’ve got to do our homework, and so we don’t have those answers.” Internally, executives are tracking which roles will decrease, increase, or remain steady to prioritize training and help workers transition. As McMillon put it, “Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side.”
The retailer has already deployed AI across several fronts. Walmart has built chatbot agents to answer questions from customers, suppliers, and employees, and it is using AI to monitor supply chain flows and product trends. In July, the company hired Daniel Danker from Instacart to lead these initiatives, reporting directly to McMillon, while collaborating with Morris on workforce planning.
Automation has also advanced in distribution. In recent years, Walmart has automated many warehouse processes using AI-related technology, leading to some job reductions, and is now exploring automation for back-of-store tasks. At the same time, new roles are emerging. The company recently created an “agent builder” position to develop AI tools for merchants, and expects growth in home delivery and high-touch customer areas such as bakeries. It has added in-store maintenance technicians and truck drivers, reflecting a strategy to pair AI efficiency with human-led customer interactions.
Despite pitches for humanoid robots, Walmart’s stance remains human-first for customer-facing roles. “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.” He expects change to be gradual, noting that functions like call centers and online chats will become more AI-dependent sooner than other tasks.
Breitbart News reported earlier this month that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has doubled down on his dire warning that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level jobs:
In a recent interview on BBC Radical, Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI company Anthropic, reiterated his concern that AI technology could eliminate a significant portion of entry-level jobs within the next one to five years. Amodei believes that repetitive but variable tasks in industries such as law, consulting, administration, and finance are particularly vulnerable to being automated by AI.
Amodei’s warning comes amidst a growing debate about the potential impact of AI on the job market. While some industry leaders, such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, argue that AI will change jobs rather than erase them, others, like Ford CEO Jim Farley, predict that AI could replace up to half of U.S. white-collar workers.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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