Can AI Make People Happier at Work?

When Walmart’s corporate staff wrote their performance reviews this February, many sped through the once-tedious task — completing it roughly five to 10 times faster than before, the company said.

That’s because they had the help of an assistant — or quite literally, Walmart’s generative artificial intelligence tool, My Assistant. Launched in 2023, the tech helps its 50,000 corporate employees (including those in merchandising and operations) polish emails, draft presentations, and quickly pull answers from the company’s 300-plus-page benefits handbook.

Since its rollout, usage has soared, with thousands of employees entering millions of prompts over the last two years, the company said. For performance reviews, the tool’s most notable benefit was in eliminating the grunt work of formatting, said David Glick, Walmart’s SVP for enterprise business services.

But the most significant payoff? Walmart believes its employees are simply happier, he said.

“If you can remove the toil and the mundane and have more focused time on adding value directly to customers and [employees], we think that’s going to significantly improve job satisfaction … that’s going to make [people] happier,” Glick said.

Walmart joins a growing list of companies — especially in finance and consulting (PwC and McKinsey have similar AI tools) — that insist generative AI can be more than just a productivity hack to speed up work flows and drive sales or, worse, a job threat. They say it can improve work itself by eliminating drudgery and allowing employees to focus on more engaging tasks and, ultimately, stick around longer because work is more fulfilling.

That more nuanced take on AI’s promise is playing out across retail.

Platforms like WorkJam — a “super app” used by retailers like Ulta Beauty and JCPenney to manage store team workflows — are rolling out AI-powered chatbots designed to boost associates' confidence on the job. WorkJam’s and similar chatbots, which companies customise with backend inputs like their own HR handbooks, provide instant answers to questions employees might hesitate to ask managers— from how long their breaks should be to dress codes to navigating a transition from store roles to corporate. In luxury retail, tools like Salesforce’s Retail Cloud, which summarise customers’ purchase histories and track trending styles, help salespeople make more personalised recommendations, meaning bigger commission checks at the end of the month.

“When you feel like you have easy access to information that tells you how to do your job correctly, that is empowering,” said Will Eadie, WorkJam’s global sales leader and chief revenue officer. “The company gets their execution and process done … their team members feel emboldened… it immediately translates into lower cost of fixing turnover.”

The Productivity-Happiness Equation

Executives, of course, love the idea that more efficient employees are happier employees — even though proving that connection can be tricky.

Experts say there is growing evidence that AI can drive job satisfaction, particularly when it helps workers learn new skills, make sharper decisions (like crafting a sharp presentation that wows leaders or elevating customer service in luxury clienteling), or navigate HR policies with more confidence.

In fashion, AI-powered “trend engines” that scan social media, search platforms like Google, and fashion editorials — typically developed by tech startups and tailored by retailers — are helping some lower- to mid-level employees advance more quickly, said Sonia Lapinsky, partner and managing director at AlixPartners. Similar tools are used internally by major fashion retailers to help employees across departments rapidly analyse vast datasets — from spring orders to customer purchase histories — and generate polished reports or even key talking points in minutes, she said.

“I think about fashion retailers specifically, and the poor merchant assistants or planning associates who are literally … pulling data into a report every Monday for five hours hopefully to be able to say something insightful in a meeting,” Lapinsky added. “Now, instead of the VP being the only one who has insights, a merch assistant could, too — and be able to look like a superstar in a meeting.”

Big tech firms like Salesforce are touting AI-powered tools they say will improve decision-making for retail marketers, merchandisers, and store associates. Saks and others (like restaurant solutions provider OpenTable) use Salesforce’s Agentforce to automate and refine loyalty emails and other promotions, drawing on shopper and point-of-sales data (or transactions in stores and at online checkout) to personalise outreach. Another tool, Retail Cloud with Modern POS, also used by Saks, is pitched as a way for store associates to enhance clienteling — and, in turn, boost commissions — by using customer order history, inventory, and sales data to offer more relevant recommendations.

“If you’re in luxury or a high touch area, it’s giving the associate much more information in the palm of their hand about their customers,” Lapinsky said. “AI can pull all of the purchase history and capture the likes and dislikes and really arm them with a much more high level selling experience that you wouldn’t have had before.”

At Walmart, tech tools like Ask Sam (launched in 2020) — a conversational AI assistant that helps store associates locate merchandise, check prices, and access sales data — makes the job feel more professional and less menial, Glick said. In February, the company also launched Wally, an AI tool designed specifically for merchants to quickly analyse sales, pricing, and inventory, resulting in more “hyper-localised assortments,” Walmart said.

“People like cool, new technologies, and it makes them feel like they’re able to do more,” he said.

The Bottom Line

Happier employees are still a byproduct rather than the direct focus of most fashion firms employing AI in their employees’ workflow. The real test is whether tools genuinely enhance jobs — or just add another layer of tech to navigate.

To truly enjoy the benefits, experts say, companies will need to become more intentional and explicit about emphasising these advantages and training employees to use these tools in a way that actually makes their work feel enjoyable.

When PwC became an early investor in OpenAI (and ChatGPT) last year, it launched an “AI upskilling” programme called My AI. The tech combined online courses, in-person training, hackathons, and even game show-style competitions to help employees learn how to “manage risks while unlocking AI value,” according to a company report. About 95 percent of PwC’s US employees used My AI, dedicating more than 360,000 hours to experimenting with the tool.

“Their excitement is infectious and resulted in many grassroots efforts such as prompting parties and brainstorming sessions to find new ways to use GenAI at work,” the report said.

For now, fashion companies are still largely focused on using AI to boost efficiency and productivity — a strategy that some short-sighted businesses may accelerate, potentially sidelining employee experience or even replacing jobs with automation, as they contend with new challenges like tariff pressures from the Trump administration, some experts say.

But, as economic pressures increase, the businesses that thrive in the long term will be those that recognise the value of human touch and factor employee experience into their ROI, WorkJam’s Eadie said. These fashion firms will see the stronger connection between employee retention, improved customer service, and profitability, he said.

“Fashion brands and retailers have to be consumer-first,” Lapinsky said. “If we could have the formula in the executives’ minds that having a very employee-centred model will make every engagement with your consumer better … then it’s then self-fulfilling on all fronts."