Walmart's AI training is making its workers confident and fearless of AI taking their jobs

As companies spend more money on Artificial Intelligence, many are wondering how their employees actually feel about using it at work. Walmart, the largest private employer in the world, recently asked its staff this exact question.

The results prove that giving people the right training can take away the fear of new technology.Massive survey reveals positive feedbackIn June 2026, Walmart reached out to its 2.1 million workers to understand their experience with AI. The retail giant received over 1.7 million responses.

The data clearly showed that training matters a lot.Maren Waggoner, Walmart’s Chief People Officer, shared the findings at a recent CNBC summit in New York. She revealed that 77 per cent of Walmart’s office workers are excited about how AI can improve their daily tasks.

Additionally, 84 per cent of frontline workers in the US said they feel very confident using digital tools on the job.Free training from Google and OpenAITo help its staff adapt, Walmart has spent the last 13 months working closely with Google and OpenAI. The company offers free AI certification and learning programs to its workers.

This strategy is working well. Employees who completed the specific OpenAI training reported a 27 per cent increase in their confidence when using AI tools.

Waggoner noted that when you give workers the right tools and training, they simply use them to get better at their daily tasks.Beating the national AI fearWalmart's approach has helped its workers feel much safer than the general public. For context, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in August 2026 showed that 52 per cent of US adults are actually more concerned than excited about AI.

However, Walmart workers are showing a lot more comfort and excitement. Instead of worrying about technology taking over, they are using it to their advantage.Humans and AI working togetherMany workers across the world worry that AI will replace them.

But Walmart is finding ways to use the tech to help humans, not remove them. At the company’s innovation lab in Dallas, Texas, using automation for heavy physical work actually created new quality assurance jobs instead of causing broad job losses.On top of that, Walmart has found that shoppers still love talking to a real human at the checkout counter.This means workers can focus on using AI to solve specific business problems while keeping the human touch.

For example, a store manager in Mexico built his own AI tool to analyze daily reports. He is still running his store like usual, but the AI tool helped him boost his fresh produce sales massively.While Walmart’s approach is helping its retail staff, the story is very different in the tech industry itself.

For many software and corporate workers, AI is actively leading to job losses and restructuring.- Ends