Two key hires announced this week show that Walmart is putting AI and front and centre of its business. The Bentonville powerhouse has traditionally led the way in retail, so this could signal the shape of things to come, observes George MacDonald
Global giant Walmart planted a big flag in the ground this week as it committed to an AI-enabled and -driven business.
The retailer announced two significant appointments that indicate how important the fast-developing technology is likely to be.
Walmart has drafted in Daniel Danker as executive vice president, AI acceleration, product and design. Danker will report directly to Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon, a sign of the value attached to the role
The retailer is also recruiting an executive vice president, AI platforms, who will report to Walmart global chief technology officer Suresh Kumar.
The importance of the hires was clear from McMillon’s comments about them on LinkedIn. He wrote that the new posts have been created “with the goal of accelerating innovation across Walmart – moving smarter and faster, putting AI and world-class product design at the center of everything we do”.
He said: “This window of opportunity to apply artificial intelligence and become even more tech-empowered, while still being people-led, is unique.”
Danker, who is at present chief product officer and head of online grocery at Instacart, will have a global role at Walmart and lead on “AI transformation”. The second person appointed will take up, in McMillon’s words, a “visionary role [to] help build the future with AI, increase productivity, speed and innovation, own the AI platforms and architect our intelligent systems stack to power our future”.
“This time, Walmart is determined to be ahead of the pack rather than part of it”
Where Walmart goes, the rest of retail is likely to follow. The retailer has consistently led the way over decades, in everything from the pioneering of big-box formats to the creation of a world-class logistics network and supply chain.
Some would argue that it was slow off the mark in the early days of ecommerce but it made up for it in the years after through the $3.3bn acquisition of Jet.com, which brought with it serial entrepreneur Marc Lore.
That deal was widely seen as an acqui-hire – the purchase of a business to bring on board a particular individual – and Lore was duly credited with transforming Walmart’s online operations.
The latest appointments aren’t necessitating acquisitions, which shows that this time, Walmart is determined to be ahead of the pack rather than part of it.
It also seems to mark a move forward in the adoption of AI in a more focused and structured way than has been the case across much of retail. The apparent purpose is for AI to run through the business, rather than be deployed in a piecemeal fashion.
In fact, Kumar told The Wall Street Journal that Walmart is simplifying its approach to AI, jettisoning a plethora of ‘agents’ accessed through different interfaces. Instead, it will consolidate them into four ‘super agents’ – for customers, employees, engineers, and sellers and suppliers.
“Evangelists prophesy a new Jerusalem, sceptics wonder if it’s all it’s made out to be, and some fear a future where humans are devalued”
It sounds like every effort is being made to adopt a joined-up approach, which makes sense in an AI environment so often dominated by dazzling, in all senses of the word, initiatives at one end and ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?’ tinkering at the other.
At the moment, the AI gold rush is reminiscent of the dotcom boom. Evangelists prophesy a new Jerusalem, sceptics wonder if it’s all it’s made out to be, and some fear a future where humans are devalued. (In that context, it’s interesting that McMillon emphasised that Walmart will remain “human-led”.)
Like the original online and ecommerce revolution, it will take some years – with a bit of crash and burn along the way – before the effects of AI on consumers and retailers are truly known. It will probably take fewer years, though, such is the pace of change. Retailers can’t afford to be spectators as some were in the past.
Keying into the AI trend will cost – everything from data storage to talent comes with a price tag. But when Walmart pins its colours to the mast, it’s a signal to take notice and act.
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