Walmart has unveiled a new initiative that will offer approximately 50,000 of its non-retail staff access to a generative AI application trained on corporate data.
The move signifies Walmart's belief in the potential of AI technology to benefit a broad range of employees.
Walmart's new feature, called "My Assistant," aims to assist employees with various tasks, from condensing lengthy documents to aiding in content creation.
This AI functionality is integrated into Walmart's broader "Me@Campus" app, which is accessible on both desktops and mobile devices. While the company has not disclosed the source of the AI technology, it combines Walmart's data with third-party language models.
Walmart executives Donna Morris and Cheryl Ainoa stated in a LinkedIn post that the initiative aims to do more than just enhance productivity. They believe that the AI app will liberate workers from tedious, repetitive tasks. "GenAI can help us work faster and more efficiently, but it also has limitations: it lacks judgment, has a limited understanding of context, and is only as good as the data it's trained on," they wrote.
The adoption of generative AI in the corporate world is a topic of ongoing debate among business leaders. Companies are adopting various strategies, ranging from aggressive implementation of AI to restricting the use of consumer AI services like ChatGPT due to confidentiality concerns.
Walmart plans to extend the app's capabilities to cover more employee tasks, starting with orientation and extending to activities like booking conference rooms and selecting benefits during annual enrollment. The company also hinted at potential customer-facing applications for the AI technology.
Walmart has a history of leveraging technology to streamline its operations. In 2021, the company distributed over 740,000 smartphones to its store employees to facilitate internal communication and task management.
