Cramer: Walmart CEO's AI warning is 'existential,' everyone needs to pay attention (www.cnbc.com)

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon warned that AI will "change literally every job" and suggested the retailer will largely hold its global workforce steady at about 2.1 million over the next three years even as revenue grows, comments that resurfaced in a Wall Street Journal report from a company conference. CNBC’s Jim Cramer called the remarks "existential," saying they prompted more reaction from business leaders than recent headlines — in part because Walmart, which competes with Amazon, is signaling it will redeploy labor into new roles rather than expand headcount. The comments echo other senior executives’ warnings (including Amazon’s Andy Jassy) that generative AI and automation will reshape corporate workforces post‑ChatGPT. For the AI/ML community the significance is twofold: technically, widespread adoption of large language models and automation tools implies rapid productivity gains through augmentation and task automation across retail, corporate and service workflows; economically, it raises risks of structural labor displacement and forces policymakers — including the Fed — to reconsider employment forecasts and labor‑market dynamics. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has noted uncertainty about how much AI is already affecting hiring, but McMillon’s public stance makes the technology’s macroeconomic impacts harder to ignore and accelerates the urgency for firms to reskill staff and for regulators to assess transition policies.