Empowering Associates and Creating Better Work Experiences through New GenAI Tool

Co-author Cheryl Ainoa, EVP, New Businesses and Emerging Technologies, Walmart  

The conversation around GenAI continues to grow, sparking interest and curiosity around how it will reshape our work, interactions, and relationships. We believe GenAI will revolutionize the retail industry, make shopping easier and more enjoyable for customers/members, and create better work experiences for associates.

To that end, we’ve launched a GenAI-powered feature called My Assistant to all campus associates in the U.S., in an easy-to-use desktop and mobile app experience. From speeding up the drafting process, to serving as a creative partner, to summarizing large documents, My Assistant has the potential to change how our associates work and solve problems. 

The significance of this launch goes above and beyond the basic benefits of GenAI, like productivity gains. We believe the key to unlocking transformation lies in the creativity and innovation of our associates. Ideally, this technology will free them from monotonous, repetitive tasks, allowing more time and focus for improving the customer/member experience. Just picture the scale of what we can accomplish by putting a simple, easy-to-use GenAI tool in the hands of tens of thousands of associates, versus limiting the use of GenAI to just a few.

Given the rapid emergence of GenAI, there continues to be heightened debate about AI and automation, as well as its impact on the future of work. Here’s our belief: It will take both people and technology to deliver on our purpose to help people save money and live better. 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. For out-of-the-box, truly brand-new thinking – that’s what humans are good at. Our humanity is what sets us apart and always will be. Many decades ago, our founder, Sam Walton said, “Our people make the difference.” That’s the truth: past, present and future.

While many people at Walmart and beyond are trying GenAI for the first time, it isn’t new to our company. We’ve been working with AI and precursors to the underlying GenAI tech for years, and we’ve developed guidelines to aid associates in the responsible usage of this technology. We see a lot of opportunity across the enterprise to remove friction, provide a personalized interface and deliver the tools our associates need right in the palm of their hands, and My Assistant is just one way we’re streamlining the associate experience with technology.

The tool is housed under our new Me@Campus super app – a one-stop-shop to navigate all aspects of working at Walmart. Associates can manage their careers, financial well-being, required learnings, teams and so much more – all in one platform. We’re also working toward using this tool for new associate orientation and to help associates better understand and choose their benefits during annual enrollment. Associates can even order a coffee in the app while they also book a conference room for their next meeting – before using the integrated campus navigation to find their way. Simply put: Me@Campus makes the cumbersome – easy.

We have more developments on the horizon, building on our strong foundation. We’re excited for associates to use My Assistant to find answers on demand, in a highly personalized and intuitive format. And we’re also building out convenient, integrated self-service capabilities that will drive requests and help the tool live up to its name as a true assistant.

The possibilities with GenAI are broad, especially when we think of how this can benefit not only our associates, but also how we engage with customers and members, enabling more personalized interactions.