Workers in all kinds of roles need to be prepared to adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace, says Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, leader of the nation’s largest private employer.
“It’s very clear that AI will change literally every job,” McMillon told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday, adding, “There may be jobs where AI will not change, but I wasn’t thinking about that.”
McMillon has joined other well-known CEOs who signaled plans to cut down the company’s workforce over the next few years to integrate more AI tools and agents. This is a growth list that includes Andy Jassy from Amazon and Jim Farley from Ford. Walmart plans to freeze 2.1 million workers worldwide for the next three years, and the company says it still comes from a wider adoption of AI technology.
McMillon hopes that white-collar office jobs will be impacted first as Walmart deploys more AI-powered chatbots and other tools to handle customer service and supply chain tracking tasks.
Ultimately, even workers at Walmart stores and warehouses will ultimately see more tasks with AI tools, and the rest of the workers will also need to embrace the new technology involved, MacMillon said in another recent interview issued Sunday by The Associated Press.
“I don’t think anyone knows exactly how this will unfold,” he said.
Workers need to get a “plus-up” and adapt to using AI in the workplace
MacMillon’s recommendation on how workers can best prepare for AI age at work is to ensure that they are familiar with new AI tools and technology, and be as efficient and productive as possible.
“I think the best way to think about it is to do a ‘plus-up’,” he told the AP. “No matter what the role is, how can I lean towards the role I have, in order to adopt new tools, utilize them, and otherwise make things better?”
According to a LinkedIn blog post published in February 2024, recruiters say they are targeting future employees who are open-minded and adaptable to keep up with fast-paced changes in the workplace as more and more companies expand their use of AI tools and more.
The ability to effectively and productively use these new AI tools is already a major challenge for many workers. A September survey of 1,150 full-time US desk workers conducted by Betterup and Stanford University found that 40% of respondents reported receiving AI-generated “Workslops.” This is work generated by AI tools that are “exaggerated as productive,” but in reality it lacks human-generated jobs, and can usually take time for human workers to fix it.
While skilled human workers are still needed to ensure that new AI tools are integrated efficiently into corporate workflows, humans outperform AI in terms of soft skills such as communication and critical thinking, which CNBC’s “closing bell overtime” said “there is value for the near future” in August.
“(These skills) are important today. I think they are just as important, if not more important (in the future),” Garman said.
MacMillon agrees that human workers will always bring the specific skills Walmart needs in a variety of roles, especially when it comes to communicating with customers. “Until we provide humanoid robots and they have the ability to spend money, until we serve people,” McMillon said of the preferences of customers who prefer to interact with human employees, according to the journal. “We’re going to put people in front of them.”
The most coveted workers are always flexible workers who combine soft and technical skills, McMillon told the Associated Press. He pointed out Walmart store managers as a prime example because they need to communicate effectively with customers, sales teammates and supply chain workers.
“The skills that store managers have are both human and technical,” says McMillon, which includes communication and critical thinking, and the ability to implement AI tools that track everything from sales trends to supply chain logistics.
“I think the skills we have as humans are valuable,” McMillon said. “They’ve always been and that will become even more true in the future.”
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