Maren Wagoner, Walmart Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Associate Experience and Digital, speaks with CNBC’s Leslie Picker at the 2026 CNBC Employee Executive Council Summit in New York City on October 27, 2026.
CNBC
As corporate investments in AI continue to grow, companies of all sizes are looking to understand how their employees feel about technology in the workplace.
walmartThe world’s largest private employer asked its 2.1 million employees that question for the first time in June, seeking to understand how one of its most diverse workforces is experiencing AI.
Based on more than 1.7 million survey responses, we found that while different employees have different familiarity and comfort levels with AI, training and experience with the technology is important.
Seventy-seven percent of employees in Walmart offices are excited about the potential for AI to improve their jobs, Maren Wagoner, Walmart’s chief people officer for associate experience and digital, told CNBC’s Leslie Picker at the 2026 CNBC Workforce Executive Council Summit in New York City.
Additionally, among Walmart’s front-line U.S. employees, 84% said they were confident in using digital tools, reflecting the fact that many of them now use AI-powered tools in their jobs, he said.
“We gave them a certificate, we gave them a training program and tools, so they use it every day,” Wagoner said.
Over the past 13 months, Walmart has partnered with both Google and OpenAI to provide free learning and AI certification programs for employees. According to Wagoner, employees who received OpenAI training said they felt 27% more confident using AI.
This allowed Walmart to buck some of the larger trends around AI across the United States. According to an August 2026 Pew Research Center poll, about 52% of U.S. adults say they feel more anxious than excited about AI, but Walmart employees report more relief and excitement, according to Walmart data.
“When you give them tools and give them training, they become more confident,” Wagoner said.
Although AI is perhaps the biggest technology revolution Walmart has experienced in its 64-year history, Wagoner said the company’s approach to transformation hasn’t changed.
“We have a pretty bold mission statement of being a human-driven, technology-powered omnichannel retailer that is ultimately dedicated to helping people save money,” she said. “This people-driven, technology-powered work has been around for a while.”
Many workers across the economy say they fear AI will replace their jobs. Wagoner said Walmart is exploring ways to use AI to automate processes in its fulfillment centers, but the retailer’s approach to the technology is to “reduce some of the friction, leverage robotics to assist, and focus on human judgment.”
In fact, Wagoner said that at the company’s innovation lab in Dallas, Texas, automation efforts to eliminate physical work previously performed by humans have instead created more quality assurance-type roles as opposed to widespread job losses.
And on the front lines of the store, Wagoner said, Walmart has found that customers “prefer to actually talk to a human at the register.”
This frees up employees to focus on using AI to solve customer challenges.
Wagoner pointed to a Mexican store manager he met earlier this year who looked at reports and built his own AI agent to drive fresh food sales.
“He’s using tools, but he’s still running the shop,” she said. “The store manager’s job is still there. He uses tools and technology to drive the business. By the way, his new sales are through the roof.”
