Walmart surveys 2.1 million workers and finds AI training pays off

Walmart surveyed all 2.1 million of its associates about artificial intelligence for the first time in June, and more than 1.7 million of them answered. The verdict from the world's largest private employer: training, not familiarity alone, drives worker confidence in AI.

Maren Waggoner, Walmart's Chief People Officer for Associate Experience and Digital, presented the findings at the 2026 CNBC Workforce Executive Council Summit in New York City, in conversation with CNBC's Leslie Picker. Her central figure: 77% of Walmart's office-based associates said they feel pretty confident using AI tools.

The frontline number ran higher. Among Walmart's U.S. frontline associates, 84% said they are confident using digital tools — a reflection, Waggoner said, of the AI-powered tools many of them already use in their roles.

"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.

Why the survey matters

Enterprise AI investment keeps growing, and companies of every size are trying to answer the same question Walmart just put to its workforce: how do employees actually feel about the technology in their workplace? Walmart, with one of the most diverse workforces anywhere, now has the largest dataset yet on the question.

The stakes extend beyond morale. Worker fear of AI is the dominant national mood. 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's own data showed its associates reporting greater comfort and excitement than that national baseline — a gap the company attributes to deliberate investment in skills.

"Providing the tools, providing the training; they feel more confident," Waggoner said.

What the training programs delivered

The survey results follow a 13-month push in which Walmart partnered with Google and OpenAI on learning and AI certification programs for associates at no cost to the workers.

Waggoner cited one measured outcome: associates who completed OpenAI training reported a 27% confidence gain in using AI.

The program structure combines several elements:

• Free certification courses built with OpenAI
• Parallel learning partnerships with Google
• Internal tools deployed into daily workflows
• Certificates that formalize the skills associates acquire

That bundle, Waggoner argued, is what separates Walmart's associates from the anxious national average. Workers arrived with different levels of familiarity and comfort with AI, the survey found, but training and hands-on experience with the technology moved the numbers.

How Walmart frames the technology

Waggoner called AI perhaps the biggest technological revolution in Walmart's 64-year history. Yet she said the company's approach to transformation has not changed.

"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."

That framing matters because job displacement is the sharpest edge of workplace AI anxiety. Many workers across the economy say they fear AI replacing their jobs. Waggoner did not deny that Walmart uses AI to automate processes — fulfillment centers are a live example. But she described the goal as narrowing, not eliminating, human work: the retailer's efforts aim to "reduce some of that friction and use robotics to help, and then really focus the work on human judgement."

The Dallas innovation lab offered her clearest evidence. There, automation of physical tasks previously performed by humans has created more quality assurance-type roles rather than broader job losses, Waggoner said.

Where humans stay in the loop

Walmart has also learned where customers refuse automation. On the front lines of its stores, the company found that customers "actually like talking to a human at checkout." That preference frees associates to spend their time using AI to solve customer challenges instead.

Waggoner offered one concrete case from earlier this year: a store manager in Mexico whom she met had built his own AI agent to read 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."

What comes next

The pattern in Walmart's data — confidence rising with certificates, free training and daily tool use — gives other large employers a template at a moment when the Pew numbers show most American adults remain more worried than excited. Waggoner's message to peers is that the 27% confidence gain from OpenAI training did not come from the technology alone; it came from pairing 2.1 million workers with the tools and the instruction to use them.