Transcript for:
CES 2024: Technology Enhancing Humanity

[Music] w [Music] [Music] he [Music] he if you can imagine it technology can create it it entertains heals connects and protects it greets us in the morning and guides us home at night it can make our dreams a reality and can make reality feel like our wildest dreams technology completely changes how we see the world each other and the future with tech by our side we have the potential to solve The World's Greatest challenges food Security Access to Health Care sustainability and environmental impact the more critical the issues the more critical the need for problem solving tech especially as part of our pursuit of human security for all so as we move forward together we do so surrounded by the world's greatest technal advancements all in one place more than ever CES 2024 is the celebration of all that Tech has to offer Humanity there's positive energy in the air we move forward with both hope and confidence because we're creating Solutions in a global effort to make the world a better place we're all on for powerful connections joyful experiences new opportunities and everything that Tech makes possible right here right now we're all together we're all in and all on now welcome president and CEO of the consumer technology Association Gary Shapiro welcome to CES 2024 and I am so thrilled that you are back here at CES you know Walmart last joined us during our All Digital CES in 2021 a senior executive shared how technology like Robotics and AI was modernizing the company's supply chain and the tech stack in the three years since then Walmart has continued to grow far beyond its Origins is just a big box store to become a fully digital Enterprise it's putting AI to work data to work robotics to work and building a smarter and more connected supply chain along the way Walmart is also doing some things they're investing in new and emerging technology like drone delivery and delivery into your refrigerator and it's also making strides in its effort to become a regenerative company making a net positive impact on our planet and the people who live here that's possible because Walmart CEO Doug McMillan understands the power not just of investing in technology but also of investing in people when he was just a teenager Doug got his start at Walmart working a summer job unloading trucks he knows the value of of hard work and of adapting and running with new ideas over more than 30-year career at Walmart he served in senior leadership roles in every one of Walmart's business segments and he's helped make Walmart the world's top retailer with more than 10,000 stores in 19 countries and worldwide revenues of 611 billion US dollar what will Walmart do next to disrupt retail well to tell us please join me in welcoming Walmart CEO Doug [Applause] McMillan thank you thank you happy to be here well today more than ever advances in technology make it Feel Like Anything is Possible at Walmart we're very very excited about how we're putting technology to work to improve the lives of our customers and Associates and the years ahead look like anything we've seen in our past as it relates to the magnitude of technological change in our company our road map is compelling at the same time more broadly as Business Leaders it seems to me that we're all facing a choice we're standing at a fork in the road let me describe two possible paths One path is to completely prioritize technology to maximize what's possible without considering potential implications the view is that if we can use technology to do something it's inevitable that it'll happen so we should just go fast and exploit what's possible it's a society driven by data and run by increasingly intelligent software it's a world where technology streamlines operation operations without much if any concern for the people involved there's some obvious and logical arguments for this approach then there's the other path it's more nuanced it's one where the benefits of Technology are pursued but people are considered along the way it's about our heads and our hearts the underlying principle is that we should use technology to serve people and not the other way around this path enables people to do things in more efficient and enjoyable ways we're choosing the second path we love what technology can do but we're building it in a way that creates better careers at the same time it creates better customer experiences and a stronger business no doubt some tasks will go away and some roles will change and some of them should like the ones that involved olve lifting heavy weight or doing repetitive task as that's happening we're designing new roles that our Associates tell us are more enjoyable and satisfying and also often result in higher pay so we're investing to help our Associates transition to this shared future we've changed and are changing a lot so much so that lately I've been asked how do you even describe Walmart today we're a people-led tech powerered Omni Channel retailer dedicated to helping people we want to help people live better that starts with saving them money but it doesn't stop there simply put our team is dedicated to helping people improve their lives on March 17th 1992 George HW Bush came to our home office and bu Bentonville to present the presidential medal of freedom to our founder Sam Walton Sam was battling cancer and he would pass away 19 days later after standing to receive the medal he said the greatest thing is that we've got ideas from all 380,000 people in the company and that's the best part we're all working together I hope we can keep it going that way that's the secret that's the key and if we can we'll lower the cost of living for everyone not just in America but we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better lifestyle and a better life better life for all that's who we are and that's what we want we have 2.1 million people around the world today working to make our purpose real Sam challenged us to design our business to make a bigger more positive difference in our world that's what inspires us to solve problems and address our own imperfections making a real difference for so many families is what gets us up and fires us up every morning today we're going to show you some of the tech we're building and how it helps us serve customers and members our Associates communities and ultimately Society in new ways technology is powering new experiences but don't miss that this is a story about people and their willingness to learn and change a willingness to adapt and our ability to imagine tomorrow and bring it to life to help us begin telling this story I'd like to introduce you to someone who recently celebrated 20 years with our company she leads our merchandising team at Sam's Club here in the US Megan [Applause] kroer hey everyone for those of you who don't know Sam's Club is the warehouse club arm of Walmart and at Sam's Club we absolutely obsess over great items one of those items for me right now is the members Mark butter chicken my girls they say it's the best chicken they've ever had which makes me feel awesome as a merchant and even better as a mom and as a mom what do I value just as much as feeding my children delicious food my time and that focus on delivering great items and saving our customers a member's time that's what's driving us to reimagine the future of retail so I'm excited to take a few minutes to share how we're bringing to life in our clubs first of all we have a digital relationship with our members and when we say digital most people think of our curbside pickup or delivery services which are awesome but something we're really proud of at Sam's Club is the digital relationship we have with our members while they're physically shopping our clubs and that's through our app our app is far more than a place to store your digital membership cards it has all sorts of features from an AI powered did you forget prompt that helps a member not forget their favorite items to Sam's cash which helps our members realize the amazing value they get from a Sam's Club membership and then the app has scanning go you just scan your items as you put them in the cart pay with a tap skip the checkout line and show your digital receipt at the exit door it's so intuitive too you can use it to buy anything $1,000 playet fuel or the $138 hot dog combo in our Cafe scan Ando at Sam's Club reached a record level of usage last quarter and we believe it's the most used app in a store or restaurant in the US and most important to us our members tell us they love the convenience but we're not done yet we aspire to be the most convenient place to shop so I'm excited to announce the next phase of our journey check this out who are you a why are you here you'll see let's go shopping okay what are you doing I'm using scan and go open the app it's easy [Music] hey you have to pay you pay in the app keep up rookie oh cool hey wait you have to show your [Music] seat what the are you like the cool version of me can you come to my high school reunion with me next month everybody still thinks I'm aor but I'm not aor anymore what about laundry you have any laundry [Music] tips now it's one thing to enable this easy kind of exit Tech in a small footprint store for a handful of items you've all seen it you can get an Apple cheese stick maybe something being as big as a box of cereal but we're doing it at scale we're providing that same seamless experience across thousands of items across our 600 clubs Nationwide a full queen bed set no problem an entire winter wardrobe yep a cart full of cereal I mean if that's what you want you got it see at Sam's Club we care about every second second a member spends with us so eliminating even the few seconds it takes to scan a receipt at the exit door it's well worth it we're live in Dallas today with this exit technology and our plan is to roll it out Nationwide by the end of the year and the journey continues we'll keep finding ways to give our members what they want most great items unmatched convenience and time back for the more important things in life Sam's Club is people L and Tech powered and this latest Innovation is just one example now I'd like to introduce you to someone who has been with our company for 25 years and leads our outstanding merchandising team for Walmart US Latrice Watkins hi everyone at Walmart we have a clear purpose to help people save money and live better as Merchants we're proud of the role we get to play in delivering that purpose we help customers solve problems we do it with Innovative products and Technology as Doug said we've chosen the second path where people come first for merchants that means the customer as we choose products we consider things like quality sustainability the supply chain including how the people who make our items are treated and of course we give customers value for their money we're continually innovating to ensure our assortment meets and exceeds our customers expectations so beyond the Staples you've come to rely on us for we're expanding the range of options in grocery for example we're innovating to meet people's increasing desire for products that are even more exciting in terms of flavor variety and natural ingredients more and more often customers are looking to us for the latest in fashion so we're expanding our elevated Brands we're also bringing more style and personalization to home decor and beauty and much of what we sell is made right here in the US did you know currently 2third of Walmart's annual product spin is on items made grown or assembled in the US no our goal is to provide families with solutions to their busy lives and that means creating a great shopping experience starting with our largest store the one closest to you the Walmart app we're investing to improve search and discoverability and we're making exciting progress we have features like virtual try on and view in your home that give customers more ways to interact with our assortment and to buy with confidence our app is also the gateway to many essential services like autoare Pharmacy and financial products of course we're continually enhancing that experience with new innovation we're going to do that again today with the announcement of a new feature shop with friends take a look shop with friends is just one more way we're creating an engaging and interactive experience for our customers and for their friends our job is to save people money and time so let's talk about saving time and hassle anyone here in charge of making sure your refrigerator is always stocked with your family favorites anyone I see a few people so do you wish you had someone to help you do that sometimes wish you had someone to help you out with that I do that's why I'm excited about the next Innovation that we're going to talk about a few years ago here on this stage we announced inhome delivery it was a first of its kind service that allows customers to have their groceries delivered all the way into their homes and even further into their refrigerators today we're announcing that we're taking that service a step further with a new replenishment feature that we're currently building to tell you how it works I'd like to invite Whitney pegan to the stage she's an engineer by training she came to Walmart six years ago and has been leading our work on emerging experiences like text to shop and inhome delivery please welcome Whitney hi Whitney hi Latrice welcome thank you uh so I've mentioned a new service will you tell everybody how it works yeah well like you said earlier everything we do at Walmart is aimed at serving customers and removing the pain points in everyday life and that's how we started by asking them how we could help they told us that Weekly household planning and remembering what to purchase is one of their most timeconsuming responsibilities and people get frustrated when they forget something or realize they don't have that one thing they need I can tell you from personal experience even something as small as not having milk can really wreck my morning especially when I've got that critical first cup of coffee poured and then go for the milk and nothing yeah you're right things get off track real fast if that coffee routine isn't right you're right the good news is we've solved that customers who are Walmart plus inh home members will soon have access to replenishment it's a feature we're building using AI to create a personalized replenishment algorithm it learns a customer's purchase patterns that determine the perfect Cadence to restock their Essentials so the long list of things you purchase frequently whether it's the ones you need every week or the things you need every 17 days they'll be there the moment you open the fridge or pantry and you didn't have to lift a finger I love it I love not lifting a finger do you can you tell us because I don't think it's a subscription is that right yeah you're right about that it's not a subscription you might use a subscription for something predictable like dog food maybe you need a bag of that every month but when you're trying to figure out how to replenish all your Essentials just a bigger list with different items each one with very aable consumption rates can get a bit complicated for example I know in my house we consume a lot of yogurt waffles milk some other things but how much and what exactly are those other things our replenishment service solves that it's personalize and adjust based on your changing needs not only are we going to get you what you need we're going to get it to you when you need it and even where you need it right to your refrigerator so when you go for the milk instead of nothing something something well what if I change my mind or I'm out of town yeah you can always remove items from your automated basket if say you know you'll be away for vacation and you don't want more milk showing up that's all in your control bottom line the entire shopping experience is automated from building the basket to delivering to your refrigerator whether that's in your kitchen or garage that's pretty cool we think so thanks for all you're doing I can't wait to see what you bring next year yeah we're really excited all right thanks Whitney at Walmart we love innovating to save people time just like we love saving people money we'll keep listening to our customers we'll keep building new capabilities and we'll keep working to earn their trust for us the only choice is to follow the second path the path where people come first thank [Applause] you thanks Latrice in most instances we build our own Tech that's the case with Sam's Club's ex experience shop with friends and in home replenishment we have more than 28,000 Associates in Tech roles around the world working to bring these experiences to life but we don't have a goal of building everything ourselves we can get more done with the right Partners like Microsoft one of our most recent collaborations has been to bring generative AI to our Associates and now we're bringing it to our customers we've been improving our search capability and have built generative AI into our Walmart app and website to deliver a helpful and intuitive search and browsing experience for for example let's say you're throwing a party for next month's Super Bowl previously you might run numerous searches for chips Wings drinks and a new 90-inch television in the new experience you search Once for something intuitive and the app shows you everything you might need our design puts the relevant product categories across the top and serves up a cur rated list of the best items we use large language models including from Azure open open AI along with our own models that are retail and Walmart specific it's our models and our data that put the finishing touches on this improved experience our new search fundamentally changes the way customers engage with us we become a partner in accomplishing a broader goal like throwing a great party the new search is rolling out to our iOS users today and to all platforms this quarter this isn't the only work we're doing with Microsoft we've been strategic partners for many years joining us so we can tell you more about what we're doing together please help me welcome Microsoft chairman and CEO SAA [Applause] Adella thank you s appreciate you being here you thanks for making the effort to be here with us you know it's absolutely it's my pleasure and thanks for everything you've done to give advice to me and the company over so many years it's really appreciated um I know that our companies have some things in common and one of those things is that we believe technology should be put to use to enrich people's lives today we've been talking about this fork in the road so when you think about everything that's possible today including the applications for generative AI what are you most excited about yeah it's it's been a fascinating I'd say 14 months Doug when I look back at even say the 70 plus years of computing history we've strived to achieve two things I would say which one is to empower people with technology that's more intuitive easy to use natural to use and second is to put the power in people's hands so that they can make sense of the world right so effectively what we've done is increasing levels of digitization of people places things so that we can have more insight and more predictive power and in both these cases that intuitive user interface and the reasoning engine we've had a real breakthrough uh with this generative AI wave um and you know it's the first time I got excited was maybe you know 18 months or so ago when I saw GitHub co-pilot as a software developer to be able to go into your editor and suddenly start saying wow I can also write code now again um and taking the drud the thing that struck me was taking the drudgery out bringing the joy back to the craft of software engineering that was just an unbelievable moment for me personally and since then of course now you know when you think about search you're not searching you're trying to get something done right your intent being understood that's empowering search of a solution that's right and and now today when I when I get a Word document or a spreadsheet you know because a co-pilot it's like the expert who wrote that document or the the expert who created the spreadsheet is right there the so it's more in fact right at comex in 1990 I was checking this up in my co-pilot bill first talked about Bill Gates first talked about something called information at your fingertips what we now in 2024 have is expertise at our fingertips uh and that's what's exciting for all of us yeah well going take advantage of the fact that you're here to get some free Consulting advice you're not charging us for this I don't think at the moment but you know our company well when you think about generative AI or other Technologies what should we be doing to serve customers and Associates better than we are now you know one of the things you know you and I talked about this perhaps last summer which I was so excited about because one the rate of diffusion right it's not like we're talking about technology you're already deploying some of this technology shaping it with your own sort of additive work that you're doing but the place where you started you talked to me I don't know if you remember this but you said hey we're putting this in the hands of our Associates the associate assistant that's pretty like that's the place at the end of the day we all have people who work in our companies who are trying to accomplish things for our customers empowering them so that they can go on to achieve big things I think that's fantastic to see right so that's the pH where I think real Revolution starts then the second place is what you just talked about which is our customers to be able to use some of this technology to transform I think the ultimate customer experience why do I shop at Walmart is to accomplish my things intents and to be able to understand that intents and the day you can have that um that I think is a very powerful place so I think starting with your Associates and then scaling to the customers is where I think a lot of this technology can be applied I am so excited as it relates to Surge that we're able to step change Improvement and not just see incrementality as we have been seeing and I hope that those of you that that are here and others will go try out this new search capability because it really is a lot better and thank you for your help with that um for all of us everyone that's here and watching we're Business Leaders technology leaders and we're all facing this question around generative AI in particular how do we put it to work for societal good and you can see things that we can't see you're learning at a very fast pace as you stand here today what advice would you give us all as it relates to that question yeah I think but all new technology you know one has to be mindful that you want to be able to amplify the opportunity with it and then also be very mindful of the unintended consequences of this technology but when we think about the opportunity if you take that metaphor I was using of putting expertise at your fingertips so when I see a rural farmer in India able to use this technology to be able to get those subsidies uh that they were looking for where they're not just going and filling out forms but are able to talk to a natural user interface that essentially does the job for them right that's empowerment when a physician who wants to spend more time with the patient at one of your clinics is able to do so because the AI is transcribing the entire Wiz IT filling out all the EMR data doing all the billing all the sort of paperwork is being done by AI so that the doctor can focus on the patient that's empowering when a student in any neighborhood now can get personalized tutoring right think about it 8 billion people in the planet can now have a personalized tutor for any subject anything that they want to learn that's empowering this just this morning in fact one of the things we launched today Doug was we work worked with one of our National Labs in the United States to discover new materials that essentially remove 70% of the lithium required for new batteries right and to me that is just fantastic to create essentially new material science uh because if we think about the planet the challenge of sustainability or you know the energy transition you have to take 250 years of chemistry and compress it into 25 years years and so that's where I think we have as a society as a global community of innovators bringing some of this technology and applying it to the challenges of people in planet is what I think you're doing we're doing and I think everyone in the room uh has the opportunity to be part of yeah well I want to thank you for your thoughtfulness as it relates to that question and the way that you approach this this issue and for those of you that don't get to talk to Sacha as much as I do I can just tell you that he is being very deliberate and thoughtful trying to shape things towards impct empowerment and good given these new capabilities that can really literally change the world thank you for your time please join me in thanking SAA for coming thank you now I'd like to introduce you to the person that's been leading so much of the progress we've made with technology in recent years someone who worked with Sacha at Microsoft in addition to having experiences at Amazon and Google sesh Kumar our Global CTO together with our St strong team is bringing Tech powered to life hey r hi I just realized we asked you to follow SAA Adella congratulations you're welcome as you know technology is changing everything it's changing the experiences we're providing for customers it's changing how we do our business isn't it yeah absolutely and in fact that's the reason why this really is the most exciting time at least in my career it's an exciting time to be leading the future of retail and it's an exciting time to be in technology especially here at Walmart technology is driving a fundamental shift across all of retail but particularly in three areas first Discovery now let spoke about how customers are discovering new products I see this at my home my daughters find inspiration sometimes a little bit too much inspiration on stuff that they find and they want to buy on social media second around purchase now Megan showed some of the ways in which we are innovating around purchase customers adapt readily to more frictionless payment options now as they grow more and more comfortable with new forms of transactions we're right there we're ready for them and then third is receive right so this is the experience that customers have receiving Goods whether it is by delivery by pickup in home the goods need to reach customers where they are and when they want them yeah well we've shown some of the innovations that are impacting our customers already here today but there's a lot that's happening behind the scenes for us to become an Adaptive retailer absolutely see as a retailer shopping today it's a combination of both online and offline experiences but customers don't care about separate channels sometimes they want to shop online sometimes those same customers they will come into the store and we are bringing the very best aspects of all channels to Delight customers no matter how they like to shop this is adaptive retail meaning that every engagement is interconnected it's frictionless and it exceeds expectations we are agile we are predictive we responsive we're not thinking separately about e-commerce or in store we are designing one adaptive seamless experience for the customer yeah to enable what you just said a lot has to change within our supply chain so let's spend a few minutes describing what's going on with the supply chain specifically when we first started with general merchandise discount stores that sold items like apparel and Sporting Goods we built a distribution center Network to support them then in the '90s we built a temperature controlled perishable food distribution Network in the late '90s we started our e-commerce business so we've been building e-commerce fulfillment centers to enable that business we ended up with three different Supply chains so for a few years now we've been working to link them we're building an intelligent connected and more automated Network one that already moves more than a 100 billion individual items every year and now we can do that in a smarter fashion s I've been with this company for over 30 years and there's never been a period of transformational change in our supply chain like the one that we've started please tell them more about it yeah so Doug the all the three systems that that we had built they work well individually but we had an opportunity to reimagine the entire system to simplify something that is so extremely complicated is never been done before not at this scale so the modern supply chain requires buil-in intelligence that can do two things number one it can forecast what customers want and when they want it and number two it can orchestrate the movement of very very different products that need to be stored in very different ways now forecasting customer demand this needs to happen very accurately obviously but far enough out for our suppliers and near real time on the customer end so we built an industry-leading forecasting system that is smart it's automated and it uses a patent pending machine learning model that predicts customer behavior and it helps us accurately forecast how much of a product is needed and where our models they incorporate dozens of different types of data like historical sales data but also things like weather forecast the overall popularity of an item compared with last year but also how an item is trending on social media now we also built artificial intelligence into how we orchestrate the optimal movement of our inventory the main job is to have the product where our customers need it the most but this AI system also redistributes inventory autonomously so if the demand for an item spikes in one area of the country our automated system redistributes the merchandise within the network so that customers can get it when they want it so after the customer places an order our AI system predicts how long it will take based on several factors including how many Associates are there how many drivers what the distance to the home and what's happening in real time the traffic and conditions so our artificial intelligence now looks at all of these things at any time tells a customer I can do it in this amount of time now Doc this is really important when we are talking about things like fresh produce my wife she loves strawberries me too but we only have a very few days to move strawberries from field all the way to the table for Peak freshness so understanding demand for items like strawberries being able to deliver them at scale across the country this requires a full breadth and depth of our system everything from infrastructure all the way to intelligence you make it sound simpler than it really is which is great um but creating a seamless experience for customers can be pretty complicated yeah so Doug this is the power of Technology that's working behind the scenes and by the way it's only going to get better our connected supply chain this is just the beginning to realize our vision for adaptive retail we will see a lot more interconnectedness between online and offline consumer experiences between our distribution centers and our e-commerce fulfillment centers stores and over time even with customer Homes Technology has never been more fundamental to the retail industry our teams are creating the future now the experiences of the future will be even more seamless it'll be even more delightful more intelligent more connected now from discover to purchase to receive at every step of the customer Journey our Innovations help us anticipate and help us react like we live in really exciting times no doubt I'm impressed with the work that our technologists are doing every single day to dream up and deliver on these amazing experiences yeah I'm really impressed too and I'm grateful to you and to your entire team for all the work that's going on to move things forward in our company sesh thank you so much thank you appreciate you now I want to introduce you to someone who joined us 13 years ago and today leads Automation and Innovation for Walmart Us stores and supply chain prba rajer Shar [Music] first I want to expand on what sures said our supply chain is more intelligent and connected by software and data think of it like an invisible layer a layer that digitally orchestrates where and how we move Goods across the supply chain our supply chain is also becoming more automated with with autonomous robots and storage and retrieval systems we have four types of systems that we're implementing in parallel one for perishable food one for ambient products like apparel or toys one for fulfilling e-commerce orders and one for fulfilling pickup and delivery orders located adjacent to some of our stores all of this automation helps us move more Goods through our buildings faster it also means Associates manage the technology and leave the heavy lifting to automation implementing and connecting these four types of automated storage and retrieval systems is a huge part of our supply chain transformation but it's not the only component as sures said demand forecasting is becoming more advanced on the front end and we are innovating all the way through to the customer with the last mile of delivery when it comes to delivery our focus is on giving customers convenient and affordable Delivery Solutions that complement their busy lives for example if you needed something delivered at 400 p.m. on a Tuesday we can do that through scheduled delivery if you needed something delivered into your refrigerator as Whitney shared we can do that through inhome or if you needed to order ingredients for dinner and at 6:00 p.m. no problem we can do that through express delivery but what if you needed something delivered immediately as in within the next 15 minutes for moments like that we've been trialing drone delivery over the last two years we've operated 37 drone delivery hubs across seven States during that time we've completed 20,000 customer deliveries more than any other retailer and we've learned a lot about how customers use this service One customer shared with us that she was in the middle of making a pot of chili and she realized she was out of chili powder drone delivery to the rescue one family in Texas was watching the Rangers game on their back patio what goes well with baseball hot dogs like most fans they didn't want to leave their home drone delivery to the rescue did you know that 75% of the 120,000 items in a super center meet the size and weight requirements for drone delivery that means there's not a whole lot that you can't have delivered with a drone today we are sharing something that's never been done before we are bringing the convenience and immediacy of drone delivery to the majority of homes in one of the largest US metros Dallas Fort Worth by the end of next year we plan to provide 70 5% of the DFW population access to drone delivery the delivery radius is up to 10 miles and deliveries can be as fast as 10 minutes this is a huge step forward for the industry it marks the first time a US retailer has offered drone delivery to this many households in a single Market the deliveries will be powered by our ond demand drone delivery Partners wing and zipline both have their part 13 35 certification which means they're approved by the FAA to complete long range deliveries by drone drone delivery isn't the thing of the future it's here today and like everything else we do it's about one thing serving the customer so if you're in the DFW area we can't wait for you to try [Music] [Applause] it thank you paa well we've shared a few Tech powerered experiences today designed by our Associates to help people live a better life of course we want to help people save money on quality merchandise that's where our purpose starts and what customers and members have relied on us for and having the One-Stop shop of a super center within 10 miles of 90% of Americans helps people save time and with today's technology we can save people even more more time and create additional convenient options so we're doing that but we also believe we can and should help people live better Beyond just saving time and money we believe we can do more we want to help them be healthier and do more than sell fresh affordable food and operate pharmacies so we're exploring additional ways to help provide care like operating health care clinics and we want to help people find easy ways to save and build equity for the future so we're working to digitize the financial services we've provided in store and more we also want to continue our work to strengthen communities we do this by creating direct and indirect jobs locally all over the world by incentivizing our Associates to volunteer their time by contributing to the tax base as one of the largest corporate taxpayers by investing in communities through our store remodels and new builds and by helping communities Thrive and recover after natural disaster disasters extending beyond our local activities for many years now we've been aggressively working to become more sustainable in the mid 2000s we paused to listen and learn which led to a permanent mindset shift we began to see the entirety of the systems we were operating in we learned that becoming more sustainable strengthens our business we set three big goals to create zero waste be supplied renewable energy and sell products that sustain our resources and environment we've made progress we now divert 78% of our waste from landfills we're powered by 47% renewable energy and we persistently work to eliminate or improve packaging and make more sustainable products the everyday Choice 63% of our Global private Brand Packaging is now recyclable reusable or compostable and we're working to be at 100% by the end of 202 in 2020 we raised the stakes with our aspiration to become a regenerative company regeneration means people places in the planet are all left better because we got involved creating opportunities for associates by paying for their college education working to improve the planet through our goals to reach zero emissions and waste improving the communities where we do business ultimately our goal is to build trust and to behave in ways that are consistent with our values let us tell you about two big areas of our work you'll hear from Donna Morris our chief people officer who joined us in 2020 from Adobe Donna not only brings some fantastic digital nhr experience to our company but she brings an amazing heart for our Associates but first I've asked Vasa kapadia who has more than a decade of experience in renewable energy and now leads our energy strategy to talk about our goals B thanks Doug you at Walmart we've been on a journey to reduce the impact of our operations on the environment and we've made tremendous progress we're on track to power more than 50% of our operations with renewable energy by 2025 but we need to do more so to start we want to accelerate our journey to decarbonize our operations and be powered by 100% clean energy well before our 2035 Target so we're significantly expanding our portfolio of off-site clean energy focusing on high impact high quality projects that deliver the right outcomes in the right places at our facilities we'll be increasing ining deployment of clean energy on site with a plan to install one gwatt of new solar and Storage by 2030 and that's just within our operations but we're also going to work to make clean energy accessible and affordable for our customers and members one of the ways we'll do that is by unlocking up to two GW of new community solar projects around the US these projects will enable 10 of thousands of households in the communities we serve to access clean energy all while delivering savings on their electricity bills in total we'll help bring nearly 10 gaw of clean energy projects online by the end of the decade enough to power more than two million households in the US and in doing so will help people save money and live better now shifting over to electric vehicles last year we announced our plan to deploy a nationwide network of fast EV Chargers across thousands of our stores and clubs by 2030 using partner technology these Chargers will be Walmart owned and operated so that we can use best-in-class Chargers and deliver a Walmart charging experience one that is convenient reliable and affordable and we'll be launching that experience with these new Chargers later this year now we recognize that we can't be Tech powered without power but that power needs to be reliable it needs to be affordable and critically it needs to be emissions free so we'll be committing significant resources to take action and help build an energy system where everyone has access to Reliable lowcost clean energy because an energy system that does that it benefits everyone our business our customers and members our communities and of course our planet so we're going to do our part in this energy transition and help leave the world better than we found it and now to talk about how we're helping our Associates live better our chief people officer Donna Morris well thank you very much Michelle it's great to be here as Doug mentioned earlier this is a story about people it's about the associates that built the technology that you've seen today it's about the merchants who buy the items and it's about the inhome delivery associate who places the carton of eggs exactly where you want them because of the meaningful connection they have with you that cannot be replaced by technology it's also a story about people and work that continues to change that looks different than it might have a year ago and these people are embracing change in the service of our customers and our members people and Associates like Lisa let's take a look with the technology I'm able to actually perform my job a lot easier and smoother my name is Lisa Espinosa I'm an outbound associate and I've been with Walmart for almost four years I started out at dfw1 and I was a picker every part of it was manual you had to list all the heavy items put them on conveyor so you were constantly lifting and moving at dfw5 the technology is so Advanced it's actually helping Associates with longevity with Walmart the elevated platform helps me get into the tote without straining my back the elevated platform is my best friend technology is actually helping Associates with all the advanced processes and I am really excited to work for Walmart you know Lisa's story and I have to say Lisa is here uh as well and her story skills and jobs that continue to evolve today in the United States skills and jobs that continue to evolve today in the United States we have over 250,000 Frontline Associates that are powering our online pickup and delivery business that's four times larger than we had in 2019 in this area the business the roles responsibilities and skills of our 2.1 million Associates across the globe will continue to change they'll be leveraging technology but most importantly our Humanity for impact as customer expectations have changed we've also accelerated the digital Journey for our own Associates and we built an app called me at Walmart me at Walmart gives our Associates the ability to manage their schedules gain new skills that can assist them in moving across into roles in the company and even make changes to personal benefits such as their 401k or stock purchase plan the access to information for our Associates improves their experience as an example we have more than 397,000 us Associates buying Walmart stock through our purchase plan that's right in their hands and we add 15% on top for their first $1,800 they put in every year me at Walmart also includes work rated tools such as viz pic which allows our Associates to instantly map and track backro inventory this augmented reality technology helps our Associates find move and manage store inventory in real time but it also captures important product data and provides predictive Trends to inform delivery you know we're on a journey to combine nearly three 300 D disperate systems into me at Walmart 300 one seamless digital platform for our campus Associates this includes my assistant which is powered by generative AI it contributes to productivity that includes supporting the creation of documents calculations and product specs since launching my assistant late last year in the United States and in Canada we're super excited to be rolling it out to our Associates in many other locations including Mexico Central America Chile South Africa and India you know but to me given I'm very much focused on our Associates the most exciting thing is how we're providing a truly consumer grade experience for our people built by our people our Associates you know most companies are focused ruthlessly on being great for their customers as it relates to technology and we love removing the friction from the retail experience but we believe it is essential to bring that exact same experience to our very own people we're building technology tools to help our Associates improve their jobs enhance their experience expence for work today and to equip them with the skills for the future creating the opportunity to turn a job into a career you know as our company becomes more Tech powerered we'll continue to evolve the rules to support our Associates growth while also meeting the needs of our customers and our members at the end of the day we want our people to grow and thrive and we want everyone to know that they belong at Walmart our Associates our customers and our members everyone Walmart is people L and we're Tech powerered but it'll always be our people that make the difference now Doug back to you thank you Donna we've shared a lot with you today we announced some new Innovations like an AI powered exit experience at Sam's Club shop with friends in home replenishment retail search powered by generative Ai and the expansion of drone delivery and we've shown you what the transformation of our supply chain means for the movement of goods and the people who move them we announced that we're significantly expanding our use of solar and making clean energy more accessible and affordable for tens of thousands of households and we shared that we're making my assistant our generative AI powered tool available to more Associates in more countries we started today talking about a decision that every business must make the fork and the road we made our choice we choose to be a company that helps people live better a company that uses technology to serve people not the other way around that treats people with dignity and creates opportunities for them to thrive that leaves communities and Society better than we found them as we fulfill our potential our people will continue to be living examples of servant leadership we're a company with not only the best of intentions but also a real impact that even more tangibly improves people's lives that's what we're working to accomplish today we focused a lot on the technology that's EMP powering adaptive retail and we describe the future of shopping but remember that this is a story about people who are learning and adapting to make that future real we all have a choice to choose a future that puts people first if we keep doing that we can help people around the world live a better life that's what we want to do that's the world we we want to help [Music] [Applause] [Music] create