---
id: "entity-element-foundry"
type: "entity"
entityType: "product"
canonicalName: "Element"
aliases: ["Walmart AI Foundry", "Walmart Element"]
source_timestamps: ["\\\"§ 3. Design AI with Workers", "Not Just for Them\\\""]
tags: ["platform", "internal-tool", "ai-development"]
related: ["entity-walmart", "action-co-create-ai-tools"]
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-edu-40-workers-dont-trust-ai"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/11/workers-dont-trust-ai-heres-how-companies-can-change-that"
sourceTitle: "Workers Don’t Trust AI. Here’s How Companies Can Change That."
---
# Element (Walmart AI Foundry)

**Element** is [[entity-walmart-d9]]'s internal **AI foundry** platform, which lets development teams rapidly build, test, and scale AI-powered applications. It is specifically designed to **facilitate associate inclusion in pilots**, enabling iterative adjustments based on the realities of daily frontline work.

Element is the enabling infrastructure behind Walmart's headline co-creation wins — the scheduling app (90→30 minutes) and the 44-language real-time translation tool. As an artifact it exemplifies the "internal foundry" pattern the authors recommend in [[action-co-create-ai-tools]] and approach #3 of the [[framework-five-approaches-ai-trust]] ("Design AI *with* Workers").

Conceptually, Element sits at the more **centralized/governed** end of the design spectrum (a robust, managed platform with scoped customization) — a useful counterweight to the more grassroots [[concept-digital-playgrounds]] pattern, and a partial answer to the "AI sprawl" governance risk.