Walmart's AI Push Recasts Workers' Jobs

Walmart surveyed more than 1.7 million of its 2.1 million associates in June as the world’s biggest private employer expands AI training and tools across its workforce. The company says workers feel more confident using the technology, even as a growing list of employers cuts jobs while reorganizing around AI.

Training on the company’s terms

Walmart said associates who completed OpenAI training reported a 27% gain in confidence using AI. The company’s survey found that 77% of office-based associates felt confident using AI tools. Among U.S. frontline associates, 84% said they felt confident using digital tools, including AI-powered tools used in their jobs.

Walmart Chief People Officer for Associate Experience and Digital Maren Waggoner told CNBC's Leslie Picker at the 2026 CNBC Workforce Executive Council Summit in New York City that certificates, training programs and tools were helping associates use AI day to day. Walmart partnered with Google and OpenAI on learning and AI certification programs at no cost to associates. “Providing the tools, providing the training; they feel more confident,” Waggoner said.

Those confidence figures differ from an August 2026 Pew Research Center poll, which found about 52% of U.S. adults were more concerned than excited about AI. Walmart’s survey measures its own associates, in a workplace where the company decides which tools enter the job and how it organizes work.

Waggoner called AI potentially the biggest technological revolution Walmart has experienced in its 64-year history. She said the company remains “a people-led, tech-powered omni-channel retailer that is ultimately dedicated to helping save money.” At fulfillment centers, Walmart uses AI and robotics to reduce friction and focus work on human judgment. At its innovation lab in Dallas, Texas, automation intended to reduce physical tasks has led to more quality-assurance roles, not broad job losses, Waggoner said.

A store manager in Mexico built an AI agent to review reports and increase fresh-produce sales, Waggoner said. “He's using the tool, but he's still running the store,” she said. “The store manager job is still there.” The example presents AI as a tool workers can use, while management keeps control over the workplace and the business goals those tools serve.

The job-cut ledger

Other companies at the summit discussed AI alongside job reductions. Microsoft announced voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees as it balanced AI investment with efficiency, following a voluntary retirement program in the spring and 4,800 job cuts in July. American Express said it planned to eliminate 5% of its global workforce and take a $336 million restructuring charge. It had almost 77,000 employees at the end of 2025.

Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec said the restructuring would make American Express “leaner, more agile, and also to prepare for AI.” He said the company planned to “reduce layers and increase spans of controls” so it could automate and use AI in the coming quarters and years. Barclays confirmed plans to cut 5,000 jobs, about 5% of its staff, in a technology-driven cost initiative. Skydance announced voluntary buyouts after its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, while Qualcomm cut jobs as it shifted toward AI data centers and non-smartphone markets.

Regulation from above

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the council held a legislative investigation earlier in October, with senior leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta testifying under oath about AI risks and safety measures. She criticized the federal government’s light-touch approach after President Donald Trump signed a voluntary accord with technology leaders the previous week. “The idea that artificial intelligence is going to self-regulate defies all reason,” Menin said.

Menin said AI labs couldn’t answer basic questions about the risk of a cataclysmic event or whether they would withhold models that failed internal or third-party safety checks. New York City had introduced 10 AI-related bills, she said, including a bill for independent third-party validation. “You cannot have these companies self-select a validator,” she said.

The summit also put workers’ financial pressures on the agenda. About 166 million Americans under 65 receive employer-sponsored health insurance. Workers paid an average of $6,850 in annual premiums in 2025, while employers paid more than $20,000 per worker, according to KFF. Marsh estimated employer health-benefit costs would rise 8.2% per worker in 2027, and Aon projected a 9.5% increase. Marsh said 59% of employers planned cost-cutting changes to health benefits in 2027, including higher deductibles. Workers hear promises of confidence and efficiency. They also face corporate restructuring and rising benefit costs.