Dive Brief:

• Walmart rolled out My Assistant, a generative AI-powered tool, to all non-store U.S. employees, the company announced Wednesday. 
• The feature is available to 50,000 employees in a desktop and mobile app interface within Me@Campus, the company’s employee app. The tool can accelerate draft writing, act as a creative partner or summarize large documents, according to Walmart. 
• The company also expects to use the tool for new hires during orientation and to help employees better understand company benefits during annual enrollment. Walmart will continue to build out the tool to support integrated self-service capabilities. 

Dive Insight:

As enterprises grow more familiar with what generative AI can do for employees, adoption at scale has picked up among the largest organizations, such as consulting firm PwC and McKinsey.

Walmart has now joined the pack, giving access to its generative AI tool to more than 50,000 corporate employees. The company said it does not believe generative AI will take over for workers, but rather serve as a tool to allow employees to spend less time on monotonous, repetitive tasks. 

“Generative AI 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,” said Donna Morris, EVP and chief people officer at Walmart, and Cheryl Ainoa, EVP, new businesses and emerging technologies at Walmart, in a LinkedIn post Wednesday. “For out-of-the-box, truly brand-new thinking – that’s what humans are good at.”

The AI-powered assistant is the latest digital innovation that Walmart has turned to as an employee tool. 

In 2021, Walmart launched Me@Walmart, a workplace app that allows associates to schedule shifts, clock in, troubleshoot daily tasks and replenish products more efficiently. That app offers a voice-activated personal assistant, called Ask Sam, which was previously available as a standalone app to some associates.