---
id: "entity-walmart-d9"
type: "entity"
entityType: "organization"
canonicalName: "Walmart"
aliases: []
source_timestamps: ["\\\"§ 3. Design AI with Workers", "Not Just for Them\\\""]
tags: ["retail", "case-study", "co-creation"]
related: ["entity-element-foundry", "action-co-create-ai-tools", "quote-fixing-the-rudder"]
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."
---
# Walmart

**Walmart** is the multinational retailer used as the case study for **co-creating AI with frontline workers** — approach #3 of the [[framework-five-approaches-ai-trust]].

Using its internal AI foundry, **Element** (see [[entity-element-foundry]]), Walmart built:
- An **AI-powered scheduling app** that reduced manager scheduling time from **90 minutes to 30 minutes** (including associate-driven shift-swapping features); and
- A **real-time translation tool supporting 44 languages.**

Both tools were **heavily iterated on direct associate feedback during pilots**, ensuring features reflected the realities of daily frontline work rather than theoretical corporate problems. This is the concrete form of [[action-co-create-ai-tools]] and the antidote to the "fixing the rudder in place" failure mode described in [[quote-fixing-the-rudder]].

**Enrichment note:** Walmart's use of the Element platform to co-create associate tools is credible and consistent with its documented internal AI efforts; specific metrics are reported via the HBR/Deloitte synthesis.