Why Walmart is Embracing AI and Robotics

One of the most famous bonehead quotes from a chief executive who brushed off technological disruption came from Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes in 2008. He said, “Neither Redbox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition.” Two years later, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy and Keyes got a job stocking DVDs in Redbox machines. We might have made up one of those two stories, but there’s no denying the fact that businesses that don’t evolve, don’t survive. The malls of the United States are emptying faster than your bowels after eating from one-too-many sketchy-looking taco stands in Mexico City, with vacancy rates expected to hit up to 25% in a couple of years.

While we can blame it all on the nearly trillion-dollar behemoth known as Amazon (AMZN), some big-box retailers simply didn’t innovate fast enough. That’s NOT been the case for the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, Walmart (WMT).

Walmart: A Dividend Growth Champion

While Amazon does rank higher than Walmart on