“我们的员工有所作为”——沃尔玛创始人山姆·沃尔顿（Sam Walton）的一句常见口号——仍然指导着公司前进的道路，因为它通过生成人工智能冒险走向未来。
这家跨国零售公司将自己定位为“以人为本、技术驱动”的公司，而正好坐在这个十字路口的是生成人工智能，大多数领导者认为，当人与技术的优势相结合时，其力量就会得到充分实现。这种信念的化身是沃尔玛的新一代人工智能驱动的My Assistant，它于50月推出，旨在提高其000,60名美国企业员工的生产力。此举使沃尔玛成为少数几家大规模利用生成人工智能的公司（科技巨头除外）之一。他们在短短 <> 天内就做到了。
这一进展背后的推动力是沃尔玛人员产品组织负责人本·彼得森（Ben Peterson）。Peterson 在一家全球咨询公司工作了十年，在那里他建立了一家为零售和 CPG 客户提供服务的产品管理咨询业务，之后他加入了沃尔玛，并直接致力于改善沃尔玛全球 2 万名员工的员工体验。
Peterson 说：“我们正踏上一个雄心勃勃的旅程，通过构建消费级和直观的数字体验来重新构想员工体验，以释放员工的最大潜力，”Peterson 说，他指的是支持员工在招聘、入职、学习、绩效管理、职业发展、薪酬、福利、工资单等方面的数字互动的系统和流程。
“技术一直是我们服务客户和支持员工的核心;我们很早就知道，我们希望成为生成人工智能的领导者，“他说。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
在这里，彼得森分享了沃尔玛最新创新的起源，以及通过炒作来实现大规模生成人工智能承诺的秘诀——迄今为止很少有组织能够做到这一点。
一、锚定引人注目的愿景
“人工智能不会取代放射科医生，但使用人工智能的放射科医生将取代那些不使用人工智能的放射科医生。这是沃尔玛总部所在地阿肯色州本顿维尔的许多领导人的嘴里的一个类比。这个类比很有力：它概括了公司对生成人工智能的精神，并强化了对创新的偏见，这种偏见使沃尔玛多年前能够重新定义供应链管理并建立其日常低价战略，该战略已被记录在全球精英商学院的案例研究中。
在ChatGPT用户超过100亿的时候，沃尔玛高管访问了一家领先的研究机构，讨论围绕生成AI的长期机会。研究人员在第一天就证实了沃尔玛的假设：该技术最初主要通过增强知识工作者的工作而不是自动化来为知识工作者服务。有了这个，沃尔玛的领导者决定专注于他们的第一个用户群——50万名美国企业“家庭办公室”员工。
在访问研究机构后的第二天，高管们聚集在一起，就沃尔玛的生成人工智能统一的愿景和信息达成一致，彼得森解释说，在围绕该技术的炒作中，这一点至关重要。
“在看似每天都有新的技术创新和整个市场的分歧观点之间，事实证明，拥有一个清晰的愿景至关重要，使我们能够避免分心并保持进步，”他说。清晰的愿景不仅令人兴奋和一致;它可以帮助团队回答关键问题，并进而动员执行：员工如何访问该工具？核心用例是什么？在最初的60天之后，我们的重点将如何演变？24个月后的世界会是什么样子？
Peterson 说，同样重要的是您在整个企业中传递的信息。沃尔玛从一开始就强调这将增加他们的工作，从而平息了员工对这项技术的任何恐惧。“我们的目标是帮助我们的员工充分发挥潜力。这是为了让他们的工作更加直观，有更多的创造力空间和人际关系，使沃尔玛与众不同，“他说。
二、为跨职能产品团队提供支持
My Assistant的产品市场契合度是由无数力量驱动的。其中最主要的是早期意识到生成式人工智能潜力的领导者的支持，比如沃尔玛的首席人事官唐娜·莫里斯（Donna Morris），彼得森认为他是优先考虑和投资该技术的关键拥护者之一。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
直到最近，彼得森的产品组织还向全球技术职能部门报告，这是沃尔玛这种规模的组织的常见结构。虽然这使产品团队能够与其他跨职能交付团队建立牢固的关系，但其与业务的距离最终阻碍了其工作。这导致了今年早些时候的变化：将彼得森和他的人员产品组织直接向莫里斯汇报。Peterson 解释说：“鉴于 Donna 的愿景、对技术的热情和良好的创新记录，让我们的团队在她的领导下是一个至关重要的解锁，现在我们更有能力创造世界一流的数字体验，为我们的员工和业务带来成果。
一旦到了执行的时候，一个完全专门的跨职能产品团队就被激活了，其中包括来自产品、工程、数据科学、设计和业务部门的高绩效领导者。当出现障碍时，该团队与高管进行了直接沟通，使他们能够专注于研究、设计和构建产品功能，以推动生成式 AI 的参与和采用。通过快速原型设计和敏捷开发，该团队为 My Assistant 开发了最小可行产品 （MVP），并在短短 60 天内将其交付给员工。
支撑他们以产品为导向的方法和上市速度的是执行领导层的一致性和参与度。“Donna 和其他执行领导者深入参与了我们的战略、愿景和执行，包括参与早期产品演示和每周签到，”Peterson 说，并指出他们的参与对于保持专注和消除执行障碍至关重要。“我怎么强调高管一致性对于真正使我们的产品团队能够快速行动并减轻我们遇到的逆风的重要性都不为过。” 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
三、主动管理变更和培训
根据彼得森的说法，任何生成式人工智能的推出都会遇到一条变化曲线，这与Microsoft Excel在1980年代被接受为企业福音之前所经历的变化曲线没有什么不同。
“类似于Microsoft Excel的早期用户必须接受培训才能了解如何利用数据透视表和VLOOKUP公式的强大功能，生成AI用户必须了解提示和高影响力用例才能真正利用其功能，”他说，并呼吁关注变更管理和采用，其重要性在AI方面不容低估。
为了推动My Assistant的采用，沃尔玛使用正式和非正式的策略，在市政厅进行实用用例的演示以建立意识，然后为人员经理提供实践培训，为他们提供在团队中倡导用例所需的经验，知识和信心。
“我们鼓励我们的领导者与他们的团队讨论使用”我的助手“，并强调如何展示它如何提高创造力和生产力，”彼得森解释道。“如果员工需要写白皮书，他们不应该以使用My Assistant作为起点而感到羞耻。管理者应该庆祝它的使用，知道它可以带来更具创造性和生产力的初稿。输出不会是完美的，需要人工干预，但 My Assistant 可以极大地帮助消除作家的障碍来开始。他说“眼见为实”，实践培训将赋予你的员工权力，帮助他们将生成式人工智能视为生产力增强器——盟友，而不是威胁。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
四、期待
今天，My Assistant提供消费级体验，使美国的沃尔玛企业员工能够安全地合成，汇总和增强沃尔玛生态系统中的专有数据。在短期内，美国企业员工将能够使用My Assistant来回答与其福利相关的复杂问题，并利用围绕职业发展、学习、入职、数据分析等的其他个性化用例。
展望未来，沃尔玛打算将My Assistant扩展到其国际企业员工，从加拿大，墨西哥和中美洲的员工开始。其愿景也是最终为沃尔玛商店和山姆会员店的一线员工提供人工智能解决方案，使他们能够更好地为顾客和会员服务。
与任何新技术一样，很难想象GenAI将在多大程度上塑造我们的工作和日常生活。显而易见的是，彼得森预计许多工作岗位将得到增加，作为副产品，将创造许多新的就业机会。
“但归根结底，”他说，“我们的员工将继续成为我们与众不同的地方。
翻译：
“Our employees make a difference” – a common slogan of Walmart founder Sam Walton – still guides the company’s path forward as it ventures into the future by generating artificial intelligence.
The multinational retail company has positioned itself as a “people-centered, technology-driven” company.
And sitting right at this crossroads is generative artificial intelligence. Whose power most leaders believe is fully realized when the advantages of people and technology are combined. The embodiment of that belief is Walmart’s new AI-powered My Assistant, which was launched in 50 months to boost the productivity of its 000,60 U.S. corporate employees. The move makes Walmart one of the few companies (other than the tech giants) leveraging generated AI on a large scale. They did it in just <> days. 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
The driving force behind this progress is Ben Peterson, head of Walmart’s People product organization. After a decade at a global consulting firm. Where he built a product management consulting practice serving retail and CPG clients. Peterson joined Walmart and worked directly to improve the employee experience for Walmart’s 20,000 employees worldwide.
Peterson says: “We are embarking on an ambitious journey to reimagine the employee experience by building consumer-grade and intuitive digital experiences to unlock the maximum potential of employees,” Peterson said. Referring to systems and processes that support digital interactions across recruitment, onboarding, learning, performance management. Career development, compensation, benefits, paystubs and more.
“Technology has always been at the heart of how we serve our customers and support our employees. We’ve known for a long time that we want to be the leader in generating AI, “he said.
Here, Peterson shares the origins of Walmart’s latest innovation. And the secret to delivering on the promise of mass-generating . AI through hype – something few organizations have been able to do so far.
Anchor a compelling vision
“Ai will not replace radiologists, but radiologists who use AI will replace those who don’t.” That’s an analogy on the lips of many leaders in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered. The analogy is powerful. It encapsulates the company’s ethos toward generating AI and reinforces the bias toward innovation that enabled Walmart years ago to redefine supply chain management and build its everyday low-price strategy, which has been documented in case studies from elite business schools around the globe.
At a time when ChatGPT had more than 10 billion users. Walmart executives visited a leading research institute to discuss long-term opportunities around generating AI. The researchers confirmed Walmart’s hypothesis on day one: the technology initially serves knowledge workers primarily by augmenting their jobs rather than automating them. With this, Walmart’s leaders decided to focus on their first user base – 500,000 U.S. corporate “home office” employees. 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
The day after visiting the research facility, executives gathered to agree on Walmart’s vision and message for generating AI unity, which Peterson explained was crucial amid the hype surrounding the technology.
“Between seemingly new technological innovations every day and divergent views across the market. It turns out that having a clear vision is crucial to enable us to avoid distractions and maintain progress,” he said. A clear vision is not only exciting and consistent. It helps the team answer key questions and mobilize execution: How can employees access the tool? What are the core use cases? After the first 60 days, how will our focus evolve? What will the world look like in 24 months? 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
Equally important, Peterson says, is the message you send throughout the business. Walmart calmed any fears employees had about the technology by stressing from the beginning that it would add to their work. “Our goal is to help our people reach their full potential. It’s about making their work more intuitive, with more room for creativity. And human connection that sets Walmart apart, “he said.
Support cross-functional product teams
My Assistant’s product market fit is driven by a myriad of forces. Chief among them is the support of leaders who recognized the potential of generative AI early on. Such as Donna Morris, Walmart’s chief people officer. Whom Peterson credits as one of the key advocates prioritizing and investing in the technology.
Until recently, Peterson’s product organization reported to the global technology function. A common structure for an organization the size of Walmart. While this allowed the product team to build strong relationships with other cross-functional delivery teams. Its distance from the business ultimately hindered its work. That led to a change earlier this year: to report Peterson and his people product organization directly to Morris. Peterson explained, “Given Donna’s vision, passion for technology, and proven track record of innovation, having our team under her leadership is a critical unlock, and we are now better positioned to create world-class digital experiences that deliver results for our people and our business.” 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
Once it was time to execute, a fully dedicated cross-functional product team was activated that included high-performing leaders from product.
Engineering, data science, design, and business. When obstacles arose, the team communicated directly with executives, enabling them to focus on researching, designing, and building product features to drive generative AI engagement and adoption. Through rapid prototyping and agile development, the team developed a minimum viable product (MVP) for My Assistant and delivered it to employees in just 60 days.
Underpinning their product-driven approach and speed to market is the consistency and engagement of executive leadership. “Donna and the other executive leaders are deeply involved in our strategy, vision, and execution, including participation in early product demos and weekly check-ins,” Peterson said, noting that their involvement is critical to staying focused and removing barriers to execution. “I can’t stress enough the importance of executive consistency to really enable our product teams to move quickly and mitigate the headwinds we encounter.”
Proactively manage change and training
According to Peterson, the rollout of any generative AI will encounter a curve of change not dissimilar to the one Microsoft Excel went through before it was accepted as enterprise Gospel in the 1980s.
“Similar to how early users of Microsoft Excel had to be trained to understand how to take advantage of the power of pivot tables and VLOOKUP formulas, generation AI users have to understand hints and high-impact use cases to really take advantage of their capabilities,” he said, calling for a focus on change management and adoption, whose importance cannot be underestimated when it comes to AI.
To drive adoption of My Assistant, Walmart uses both formal and informal strategies, conducting demonstrations of practical use cases at town halls to build awareness, and then providing hands-on training to people managers to give them the experience, knowledge, and confidence they need to advocate for use cases in their teams.
“We encourage our leaders to talk to their teams about using My Assistant and emphasize how to demonstrate how it improves creativity and productivity,” Peterson explains. “If employees need to write a white paper, they should not be ashamed to use My Assistant as a starting point. Managers should celebrate its use, knowing that it can lead to a more creative and productive first draft. The output won’t be perfect and will require human intervention, but My Assistant can greatly help remove barriers for writers to get started. “Seeing is believing,” he says, and hands-on training will empower your employees and help them see generative AI as a productivity enhancer – an ally, not a threat.
Iv. Expectations
Today, My Assistant delivers a consumer-grade experience that enables Walmart corporate employees in the United States to securely synthesize, aggregate, and enhance proprietary data within the Walmart ecosystem. In the near term, U.S. business employees will be able to use My Assistant to answer complex questions related to their benefits and take advantage of other personalized use cases around career development, learning, onboarding, data analytics, and more.
Going forward, Walmart intends to expand My Assistant to its international corporate workforce, starting with employees in Canada, Mexico and Central America. The vision is also to eventually provide front-line employees at Walmart stores and Sam’s Club with AI solutions that will enable them to better serve customers and members.
As with any new technology, it’s hard to imagine how much GenAI will shape our work and daily lives. What is clear is that Peterson expects many jobs to be added and, as a byproduct, many new jobs to be created.
“But at the end of the day,” he said, “our people will continue to be what sets us apart.”
本文由数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）转载而成，来源于即时新闻；编辑/翻译：数字化转型网小汤圆。
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