Walmart Is Done Experimenting With AI

When John Furner becomes chief executive of Walmart on February 1, the change coincides with a reorganization that shifts how the company manages technology, data, and commerce platforms. The changes do not center on a single AI product or launch. They focus on internal structure.

Many retailers talk about artificial intelligence as a tool they are testing or a feature they are rolling out. Target has embedded AI into its shopping experience, launching an AI-powered gift-finder and conversational tools that offer personalized recommendations and list management for holiday shoppers. Kroger is expanding its AI strategy with tools like a generative AI-powered shopping assistant and smart cart integrations to make grocery planning, personalized offers, and checkout faster and more seamless. Walmart, by contrast, is behaving as if AI is infrastructure, integrating generative AI into shopping experiences and internal operations at scale.

Walmart Rewrites the Org Chart Before It Rewrites the App

In January, Walmart announced that several platform businesses would be managed at the enterprise level rather than inside individual operating units. Advertising, data, membership, marketplace, and related commerce platforms now sit under an expanded chief growth officer role. These businesses generate a growing share of Walmart’s revenue and rely on shared data and software systems. Centralizing them places technology and analytics closer to the top of the organization. In fiscal 2025, e-commerce accounted for approximately 18% of Walmart’s total revenue, or more than $120 billion, while its marketplace business grew more than 30% year over year and its advertising unit grew in the mid-20% range, according to company disclosures and earnings statements (Walmart FY25 earnings).

Walmart described the changes as a response to how artificial intelligence is being deployed across retail operations. In announcing the reorganization, Furner said the company was “centralizing our platforms to accelerate shared capabilities,” while allowing operating segments to focus on stores, customers, and execution. The structure separates platform development from day-to-day retail operations and places data-driven systems under direct executive oversight.

The decision reflects the scale of Walmart’s internal systems. The company operates more than 10,700 stores worldwide, serves roughly 270 million customers and members each week, and employs about 2.1 million people. According to company disclosures, more than 60% of Walmart’s freight moves through automated distribution centers, and more than half of online orders are fulfilled through automated facilities. Reuters has also reported that over 40% of new software code at Walmart is now generated or assisted by AI tools. Walmart’s logistics network moves more than a billion cartons annually, coordinating thousands of daily truckloads across stores and fulfillment centers.

Why Walmart Put an Operator in Charge of AI

These systems are already embedded in core functions. Walmart uses machine-learning models to forecast demand at the store and product level, adjust inventory placement, and route shipments across its logistics network. In some supply-chain operations, AI-based routing has reduced delivery delays by about 20%. Walmart has also said that early deployments of self-healing inventory systems have saved tens of millions of dollars by correcting stock imbalances without manual intervention. Internally, AI tools are used for planning and task management. Walmart has said that pilot programs cut store-manager shift-planning time from roughly 90 minutes to about 30 minutes.

The leadership transition aligns with that operating reality. Furner has spent more than three decades at Walmart in roles that included store operations, supply chain, merchandising, and leadership of Sam’s Club. He also ran Walmart’s U.S. business during the pandemic, when the company accelerated pickup, delivery, and automation across stores and fulfillment centers. During that period, Walmart expanded same-day delivery to cover the vast majority of U.S. households.

Walmart’s outgoing chief executive, Doug McMillon, has said that AI will change every job at the company. So far, the company has framed those changes in terms of altered workflows rather than workforce reductions. Walmart has rolled out AI-based tools for associates, including task prioritization and real-time translation that supports dozens of languages, alongside systems used by merchants and planners to standardize forecasting and replenishment decisions.

The company’s external partnerships follow the same pattern. Earlier this month, Walmart announced that its products would appear within Google’s Gemini chatbot when users conduct shopping-related queries. Purchases initiated through Gemini are completed within Walmart’s own checkout systems. The experience launches first in the U.S. before expanding internationally. Walmart has taken a similar approach in partnerships with OpenAI, keeping transactions and fulfillment under its control while distributing product discovery across third-party interfaces.

The reorganization changes where technology decisions are made and how AI systems are shared across the business. Platform teams now build and maintain systems intended for use across merchandising, advertising, logistics, and digital commerce. Operating units focus on applying those systems in stores and regional markets. The arrangement concentrates responsibility for data, automation, and monetization in a small number of enterprise roles.

The remaining uncertainty is execution. The technology is already in use across inventory management, logistics, software development, and store operations. The organizational changes assume that standardizing platforms will lead to consistent adoption across a workforce of more than two million people. Past technology rollouts at Walmart have taken years to normalize across regions and job functions, even when systems were technically ready.

Walmart’s actions indicate that AI is treated as a permanent part of its operating structure. The leadership changes formalize that position by moving data-driven platforms to the center of the company’s management structure and tying them directly to executive oversight.