Walmart has a message for its 2.1mn workers: AI is going to improve your job, not take it.
The largest private sector US employer and global retail behemoth is plunging headlong into AI to assist with a range of tasks, from designing clothes to marshalling trucks, in a push that executives drummed into thousands of employees who flew to its Arkansas headquarters campus earlier this week. Any US staff member can now get certified in the use of OpenAI, Walmart announced.
The company’s embrace of AI comes amid anxiety over the technology’s potential to make certain workers redundant. AI has been the leading reason US companies gave for cutting jobs in each of the past three months, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a job placement firm.