Amazon’s 2025 revenue of $716.9 billion narrowly surpassed Walmart’s $713.2 billion. Yet Walmart remains a powerful force, expanding tech-enabled profit engines while positioning its workforce strategy as a potential model for AI-era employers.
Key Takeaways
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Walmart’s people-first AI strategy: Walmart is doubling down on its “people-led, tech-powered” approach, linking AI deployment to associate opportunity, skills-based hiring, and leadership development rather than headcount cuts as its primary lever.
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Investing in skills at scale: With 2.1 million employees, Walmart is using its size as a strategic advantage, rolling out OpenAI certifications, AI tools for frontline associates, and Manager Academy to embed empathy and human-centered leadership in a tech-rich environment.
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An HR blueprint for AI era: While Amazon illustrates a lean, infrastructure-heavy model, Walmart offers HR leaders an alternative playbook that treats technology as an amplifier of human capability, underscoring that long-term competitiveness can be built around workforce investment as much as cost reduction.
