Walmart announced a plan to give about 50,000 non-store employees access to generative artificial intelligence applications trained on company information.
The move shows that a major US company sees the value in providing broad access to the technology industry's hottest new products.
Walmart points out that the new My Assistant feature can help with a range of tasks, from summarizing long documents to creating new content.
The generative AI capabilities are part of the company's broader employee app, Me@Campus, which runs on computers and smartphones.
The feature collects data from Walmart based on a third-party language model, but does not disclose the AI technology used.
The company points out that this initiative goes beyond simply improving productivity and hopes that this feature will free employees from monotonous and repetitive tasks.
“We need people and technology to achieve our mission of helping people save money and live better,” Donna Morris, executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Walmart, wrote in a blog post. “Generative AI can help us do more... It works faster and more efficiently, but it lacks judgment, has limited understanding of context, and its effectiveness depends on the data it is trained on.”
Whether and how generative AI can be used for business purposes is now hotly debated among CEOs and boards of directors.
Companies are taking different approaches, from aggressively adopting the technology to blocking users from using mainstream AI services like ChatGPT, to prevent leakage of sensitive information.
Walmart often relies on technology to improve operations in its offices and stores. Starting in 2021, the company will provide its employees with more than 740,000 smartphones to ensure store employees can access its internal apps to check appointments, log in, communicate with each other and find merchandise.
Walmart hopes to use the app to offer more to employees, from onboarding to events to choosing benefits during the annual open enrollment period.
Walmart's post also hinted at customer-facing applications, with Morris saying: "The opportunities for generative AI are enormous, especially when we think about how we interact with customers and members, enabling more engaging, personal interactions."