Walmart CEO Doug McMillion Champions Embracing AI and Tackling Bias as Keys to Growth During Keynote at CES 2021

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon sits down to discuss how the turbulent nature of 2021 reinforced the company’s focus on creating meaningful value for all – from shareholders and suppliers to customers and employees. Mr. McMillon will illustrate how Walmart is prioritizing shared value while also running a strong business through its Covid-19 response, fight for greater racial equity, and recent climate

commitments.

Embracing AI and Emerging Technologies

Walmart is definitely future focused and looking at how they can implement new technologies for growth. In his speech McMillon stated that Walmart had modernized their tech stack which has “resulted in a lot of speed and innovation,” and that they were focused on “what the future of AI will mean, or how robotics will change our business, and how 5G will change how people want to live and shop.”

I’m excited for us to become a regenerative company, to not only offset the negatives but do other things to protect the natural habitat, whether land or ocean, to reverse what is happening on our planet, and heal.

Walmart CEO, Doug McMillon

Addressing Racial Bias

“You tell yourself, we are doing what we should, we see progress, and then something happens: the murder of George Floyd captures everyone’s attention — and he is not the only one, many other people have suffered — where you said, We were all watching this, it’s an opportunity to make more progress faster.”

McMillon stated that as a company, Walmart, has been “trying to seize that moment inside the company,” to have “difficult conversations.” It surprised me when he went even further to say that included, “learning more about American history, some things that I was not taught in school,” added McMillon, “about the financial system, the criminal justice system, in particular, areas that result all too often in inequity.”