Walmart CEO Doug McMillon speaks before the opening bell at the Nasdaq Marketsite on Dec. 9, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
If Doug McMillon’s reign at Walmart was defined by digitalization, the retail giant’s next chapter under incoming CEO John Furner is set to be dominated by A.I. “When you see somebody who’s ready to run the next lap better and faster than you are, it’s time to hand the baton and get out of the way,” McMillon, who will step down early next year, said on CNBC’s Squawk Box yesterday (Dec. 9) after the company moved its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq to align itself with the tech-heavy index.
“Walmart’s changed a lot, and we’re trying to make sure everyone knows it,” said McMillon.
McMillon joined Walmart more than 40 years ago and has served as CEO for roughly a decade. His tenure has been marked by a sweeping e-commerce transformation and major internal investments in wages and development programs. Walmart’s shares increased more than 300 percent during his leadership. Still, the executive insists he simply got lucky. “I drew an ace off the deck.”
The outgoing CEO said he realized it was time to step aside after recognizing that commerce’s next phase will be agentic. “I could start this next big set of transformations with A.I., but I couldn’t finish it,” said McMillon.
Those transformations aim to overhaul the shopping experience with A.I. at the core. Walmart plans to replace its traditional app and website with A.I.-native platforms that are personalized and filled with multimedia content that, in some cases, could even resemble TikTok, according to McMillon. Early pieces of that strategy are emerging in Sparky, Walmart’s A.I. assistant, which offers custom recommendations, compares options and synthesizes customer reviews.
As he steps into the role, Furner will inherit a company that has expanded its e-commerce muscle enough to compete effectively with Amazon. In its most recent earnings report, Walmart beat expectations on both sales and profit, posting a 4.8 percent year-over-year revenue increase to $180 billion.
Much of that growth stems from Walmart’s broad appeal across income groups. Once seen primarily as a haven for bargain hunters, the retailer has recently drawn more affluent shoppers as even wealthier households look for deals in a strained economy. Its core middle- and lower-income customers remain a steady force, though inflation has created “pressure at the bottom end,” McMillon noted, pointing to rising grocery prices as a particularly “sticky problem.”
As for McMillon’s next chapter, he hasn’t settled on a plan yet. He said that it will likely involve some combination of business and philanthropy. For now, though, he’s looking forward to a “blank calendar” for the foreseeable future.
