How Walmart plans to prepare America's largest private workforce for an
AI-driven future
[September 29, 2025] By
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
BENTONVILLE, Ark (AP) — As artificial intelligence and demographic
changes reshape the U.S. job market, the nation's largest private
employer is trying to identify the skills its workers and the broader
labor force might need for the future.
Walmart on Thursday hosted more than 300 workplace experts and
representatives from other companies participating in the Skills-First
Workforce Initiative, a project to develop and fill stable jobs based on
what people know how to do instead of whether they attended college.
The retailer already has launched its own employee training and
certification programs to meet Walmart's need for truck drivers and
maintenance technicians, two roles for which U.S. companies say they
can't recruit fast enough as experienced tradespeople retire.
Walmart says it plans to offer a similar AI skills program next year
through a new collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
The Associated Press sat down with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at the
company's sprawling headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to talk about
AI and the American workforce. The interview has been edited for clarity
and length.
AP: What's your view of the overall health of the job market, given the
uncertainty about tariffs and the economy?
MCMILLON: I would say pretty much a steady state. Turnover numbers are
coming down. I'm remembering what happened during the pandemic and
relative to that experience, things feel much more stable now. I think
the pace of change in the employment market is just smaller and easier
to manage.
AP: What are the biggest factors affecting Walmart workers? Fear of AI,
or their paychecks not keeping pace with inflation?
MCMILLON: We continue to invest in wages. So I think that’s helping
some, and that process will continue. As it relates to AI and the future
of employment, I think for the most part, our folks are enthusiastic
about it because they’ve seen new tools that they’re receiving that are
making their jobs better. That's helping them take fewer steps.
And our sales are growing so much. I think people are optimistic about
the future of what their life can look like.
AP: Which jobs might be eliminated or added because of AI?
MCMILLON: I think no one knows how this is going to play out exactly.
And the way it feels to me is that basically every job gets changed. And
I think the best way to think about it is getting “plussed up.” So how
can I lean in the role that I have, regardless what that role is, to
adopt new tools, leverage them and make things better than they would’ve
otherwise been?
As I look across our company, we have everything from store associates
to supply chain associates. Of the 2.1 million people (globally),
something less than 75,000 of them are home office jobs. All the other
ones are working in a store, a club, a distribution center. And I think
those jobs change more gradually. We are still going to want to serve
customers and members with people. The change as it relates to the home
office jobs probably happens faster.
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Walmart CEO Doug McMillon speaks at the Opportunity Summit Thursday,
Sept. 25, 2025, in Bentonville, Ark. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
 AP: When will you have a clearer
idea?
MCMILLON: I don’t know there’ll be a moment where we all have
clarity. I think the way for all of us to approach it, especially
here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human,
straightforward way, talking to people real time about what we’re
learning and what we're doing and why we’re doing it. That’s the way
that we plan to lead through this.
AP: Do you think AI will result in fewer workers at Walmart?
MCMILLON: One of the biggest areas of change in the last decade is
related to associates that work in our stores, picking orders for
delivery and pickup for our customers. And we have something north
of 200,000 people doing that job, and yet we have about the same
(total) number of people working in Walmart U.S.
How did we do that? Other tasks and other jobs changed, which
enabled us to create new jobs that paid more and have fewer of the
older jobs that went away. I hope what happens as we lead through
this is that there will be pluses and minuses, but the net ends up
being even more people because we have more ideas of how to grow.
AP: What do you think are the most coveted skills?
MCMILLON: The first thing that comes to mind is store managers.
Being a store manager is such a great job and such a challenging
job. And it’s a job that pays well, and it pays well for a reason.
You’re interacting with the community with large numbers of people.
You have a large number of associates. You have big sales numbers to
deliver. And those skills that the store manager has are both human
and technical. I think the skills that we have as human beings are
valuable. They always have been, and that’ll be even more true in
the future.
AP: Why are there shortages in roles like maintenance technicians?
MCMILLON: To some degree, it’s a lack of awareness. I think most
Americans probably don’t know what a tech makes that helps take care
of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a
tech. The same thing’s true for our drivers. So we have a need to
get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs.
AP: Do you think Walmart will be able to fill such gaps as the
immigrant pool shrinks?
MCMILLON: We’ve been able to do that so far, and I expect that we’ll
continue to find great people that want to join the company and our
turnover rates are down, which is helpful.
AP: How critical is this initiative focused on skills-based hiring?
MCMILLON: I think as we all work to learn and navigate the future
towards a world where AI fulfills its promise, the best way to do
that is to work together and to share information and learn
together. It’ll speed up our ability to get ahead of this so that we
can do a better job of setting our associates up for success. And
that’s ultimately what we’re trying to do. The change that’s
happening in the world is going to happen. Our choice is to lean in,
learn (and) help lead so there are better outcomes for everybody
involved.
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