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As enterprise AI investment continues to grow, companies of all sizes are trying to figure out how employees feel about the technology in the workplace. Walmart, the biggest private employer in the world, asked its 2.1 million associates in June that exact question for the first time, trying to get a sense of how one of the most diverse workforces is experiencing AI. What it found, based on more than 1.7 million survey responses, is that while workers have different levels of familiarity and comfort with AI, training and experience with the technology matters. Seventy-seven percent of Walmart's office-based associates said are excited about AI's potential to improve their work, 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. And as for Walmart's U.S. frontline associates, 84% said they are confident using digital tools, a reflection of the AI-powered tools that many of them are now using in their roles, she said. "We've given them certificates, we've given them training programs and tools, and so they're using it in their day-to-day," Waggoner said. In the last 13 months, Walmart has partnered with both Google and OpenAI around learning and AI certification programs for associates at no cost. Waggoner said that associates who went through OpenAI training said they had a 27% confidence gain using AI. That has helped Walmart buck some of the larger trends around AI across the country. While about 52% of U.S. adults say they are more concerned than excited about AI, according to an August 2026 Pew Research Center poll, Walmart associates report greater comfort and excitement, Walmart data showed. "Providing the tools, providing the training; they feel more confident," Waggoner said. While AI is perhaps the biggest technological revolution that Walmart has gone through over its 64-year history, Waggoner said the company's approach to transformation has remained the same. "We have a pretty bold mission statement around being a people-led, tech-powered omni-channel retailer that is ultimately dedicated to helping save money," she said. "The people-led and tech-powered piece has been around for a while." Many workers across the economy say they are afraid of AI replacing their jobs. While Waggoner said Walmart is finding ways to use AI to automate processes in fulfillment centers, for example, the retailer's efforts with the technology are to "reduce some of that friction and use robotics to help, and then really focus the work on human judgement." In fact, Waggoner said, at the company's innovation lab in Dallas, Texas, automated efforts to reduce the physical tasks previously performed by humans have instead created more quality assurance-type roles as opposed to broader job losses. And on the front lines of stores, Waggoner said Walmart has found that its customers "actually like talking to a human at checkout." That has allowed associates to focus their efforts on using AI to solve customer challenges. Waggoner pointed to a store manager in Mexico that she met earlier this year who built his own AI agent to look at reports and drive fresh produce sales. "He's using the tool, but he's still running the store," she said. "The store manager job is still there. He's using the tools and technology to drive his business. And by the way, his fresh sales are through the roof."
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