For the first episode of 3-Minute Insights in 2026, 8th & Walton CEO Jeff Clapper discusses Walmart’s upcoming leadership change and its impact on suppliers.
Lainie: What are your thoughts about this transition and how it will impact Walmart?
Jeff: I’m interested in how it will affect Walmart suppliers. That is who we are here to serve. From their perspective, there will be a lot of consistent improvement on the existing strategy, so it’s not necessarily a major shake-up, but really just continued improvement.
Jeff: There will be more emphasis on some of the same things. I think there are a couple of key elements to that: an even sharper focus on operational basics, delivery, forecasting, and packaging item setup. All of this really just supports further emphasis from Walmart’s perspective on reliability to their customer.
Jeff: Automation and the use of AI are all key components of where the company is heading, and that’s how that will translate over to suppliers. That enables more emphasis on automation, AI, and overall customer reliability, which is excellence in your digital presence and in the data that you’re interchanging with Walmart.
Jeff: Those are table stakes. A little bit separate from those things is the strategy and focus around U.S. sourcing and suppliers’ domestic capabilities, in terms of rapid response and a dynamic supply chain and sourcing environment.
Jeff: I think those will continue to be relevant to Walmart and, by extension, to their suppliers.
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Lainie: Many people have mentioned that John Furner is really well placed in terms of Walmart’s tech initiatives. Walmart has really embraced leading-edge technology, generative AI, and that sort of thing.
Lainie: Any suggestions to suppliers about how to prepare for that with the new expectations?
Jeff: I think it was just recently that Doug McMillon said he can’t think of a job at Walmart that won’t be affected by AI. By extension, the same could be said for its suppliers.
Jeff: So that is really something for suppliers to be thinking about: How can we bring new insights, new data analysis, and new ways to improve speed and consistency in the work that we do and the product that we bring to Walmart? I think it’s going to affect the entire retail landscape.
Lainie: We just did a Three Minute Insights with Ahan Walton and Terry Clear about Walmart’s embrace of generative AI, and also Doug McMillon’s statement that all jobs are going to be impacted by this and they’re not planning on cutting jobs, but retraining people. I asked, “What do you think suppliers need to do?”
Lainie: And he said, “I think suppliers need to do the same thing. They need to be retraining their people.”
Jeff: That’s right. The other thing is that we’re progressive about how we’re looking at AI in what we do, and at the same time we have healthy skepticism, because there are plenty of challenges, limitations, and drawbacks. While some of those are shifting or improving, a lot of healthy skepticism and effort will actually produce the best results in the end. Where there are hallucinations, bad information, or you’re losing humanity, that attention can actually improve overall results for the company and for customers.
Jeff: So I think not just running in without thinking about it, but keeping your head about you, is going to be important.
Lainie: Tech needs to be a tool that we use rather than something that uses us.
Jeff: Well said.
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