Walmart is training store-level employees to use AI

Forty-three years ago, Darlene Lane got her start at Walmart, working in the billing department for a regional distribution center. Now a manager of learning and development for the company, Lane was a guinea pig for how the company would train associates of all levels throughout the company on AI.

Last week, Walmart launched its certification program for associates with OpenAI after launching a similar certificate program with Google earlier this year. Lane was the first person to complete the new OpenAI certificate. She said that, since then, she has used AI as a “thought partner,” asking for ideas on activities she could include as part of a training program, for example.

“I’m probably the least technical person that you will ever meet,” Lane told reporters, as part of a presentation in Springdale, Arkansas during Walmart’s Associates Week, near its headquarters in Bentonville. “I was very hesitant at first when we got AI, because it was new technology; I was scared to use it,” Lane added. “It was easy to go through, it was easy for me to understand; and if I can get it and understand it, 99.9% of people out there can.”

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