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In this newsletter edition, and ahead of the AI Trailblazers Agents Summit, we look at the latest Pew study on public sentiments towards AI, the continuing debate of decentralization versus centralization and Walmarts success with AI adoption. Enjoy!

AI at Work: Innovation or Job Killer?

As artificial intelligence continues to expand in the workplace, American workers have mixed feelings about its impact. While some see AI as a tool for efficiency, many are concerned about job security and long-term opportunities. A recent Pew Research Center survey reveals that more workers are worried than hopeful about AI’s future role, with adoption varying by age, education, and industry. From chatbots to automation, AI’s presence is growing—but its benefits and risks remain hotly debated.

• Workers Are Skeptical About AI’s Long-Term Impact
  Over half of American workers (52%) are worried about AI’s growing role in the workplace. About one-third (32%) believe AI will reduce job opportunities, while only 6% think it will create more jobs. Lower- and middle-income workers are more concerned than higher earners about AI’s impact on job availability.

• AI Adoption in the Workplace Remains Limited
  While AI is expanding, 63% of workers say they rarely or never use it in their jobs. Only 16% report using AI for at least some tasks, with younger and more educated employees being the most frequent users. An additional 25% believe some of their work could be done with AI, though they currently don’t use it much.

• AI Chatbots Are Gaining Traction, But Slowly
  About 10% of workers use AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini regularly, while 55% say they rarely or never use them. Younger employees (ages 18–29) are the most likely to engage with these tools for tasks like research, editing, and drafting content. Despite their adoption, chatbots are seen as more useful for speeding up tasks than improving work quality.

• AI’s Perceived Benefits Depend on Age and Experience
  Workers under 50 are more likely to see AI as a helpful tool than those over 50. Among AI users, 40% say chatbots significantly boost efficiency, while only 29% believe they improve work quality. As AI continues evolving, its role in enhancing productivity versus displacing jobs remains a pressing debate.

AI Trailblazer Takeaways: AI skepticism and fear continues to grow. Could the fear be the ultimate downfall of the tech? Maybe. It would be very beneficial for the big tech titans to take a bit of the billions they are spending on the take and use that money to educate the public, otherwise they risk widespread refusal to adopt AI.

Decentralized AI Rises: The Silent Revolution Reshaping AI

As centralized AI continues to dominate headlines with billion-dollar investments and cutting-edge models, a quieter but powerful movement is gaining traction—decentralized AI (DeAI). Forbes writes that unlike traditional AI controlled by a few major players, DeAI leverages blockchain technology to enhance transparency, security, and accessibility. Recent developments, from Fetch.ai’s Web3-native model to Coinbase listing the DeAI-focused TAO token, signal a growing shift toward a more open and distributed AI future.

• Decentralized AI Gathers Momentum Amid Centralized Dominance
  While tech giants pour billions into centralized AI, decentralized AI is quietly advancing with new innovations. Unlike closed models, DeAI offers transparency, security, and a distributed network that eliminates single points of failure. These advantages are fueling rapid development, despite mainstream AI models capturing most of the attention.

• Fetch.ai Unveils First Web3-Native AI Model
  Fetch.ai launched ASI-1 Mini, a decentralized AI model allowing users to own, train, and invest in AI. It delivers performance comparable to centralized AI while being more cost-effective and efficient. With its unique agent-based structure, ASI-1 Mini adapts dynamically to tasks across industries like healthcare and automation.

• O.XYZ Introduces Ocean, a High-Speed AI Assistant
  Ocean is a next-gen AI search engine and conversational assistant featuring real-time web search and voice interaction. Built on LLama 3.3 architecture, it claims to outperform industry leaders like ChatGPT in response speed. With transparent speed metrics and evolving capabilities, Ocean aims to set a new standard for AI-driven interactions.

• Coinbase Lists TAO, Boosting Decentralized AI Adoption
  Bittensor’s TAO token, which incentivizes AI development on a decentralized network, is now available on Coinbase. While some U.S. states restrict its purchase, the listing marks a major step toward mainstream acceptance of decentralized AI. Industry leaders see TAO’s rise as a pivotal moment in the convergence of AI and blockchain.

AI Trailblazer Takeaways: The centralized vs decentralized debate is reminiscent of the mainframe vs server debate from the 80’s/90’s….we all remember how that went. This time may be different though as it’s more than just a hardware debate. The viability, cost, accuracy, speed and convenience of the models will ultimately determine which schema wins out.

Walmart’s AI Secret Weapon: Meet Wally, the Merchandising Game-Changer!

Fast Company explores how Walmart is harnessing the power of AI to revolutionize how its merchandising team analyzes sales, pricing, and inventory data. The company recently introduced Wally, an internal generative AI tool that delivers insights in seconds—helping merchants make faster, data-driven decisions. As part of Walmart’s broader AI strategy, Wally enhances efficiency, improves inventory management, and ensures more agile responses to customer demand. With built-in accuracy checks and ongoing refinements based on user feedback, Wally is set to play a key role in Walmart’s tech-driven retail evolution.

• AI-Powered Merchandising at Walmart
  Walmart has introduced Wally, an internal AI tool designed to help its merchandising team analyze sales, pricing, and inventory data more efficiently. The tool generates reports in seconds, replacing the hours-long manual process previously required. By using a chat-style interface, Wally simplifies data access and interpretation, ensuring merchants can make faster, more informed decisions.

• Boosting Efficiency with Generative AI
  Wally allows Walmart’s merchants to quickly analyze sales trends, manage inventory, and adjust pricing based on real-time data. It understands industry-specific terminology, making it easier for employees to retrieve relevant insights without worrying about exact database labels. Merchants report that Wally has saved them significant time, allowing them to focus on strategic decision-making.

• Walmart’s Expanding AI Ecosystem
  Wally is just one of several AI-driven initiatives at Walmart, joining customer-facing AI shopping assistants and AI-powered coding tools. CEO Doug McMillon highlighted that Walmart’s AI-driven coding assistance saved four million developer hours last year. The company continues to invest in AI solutions to enhance both customer experience and internal operations.

• Ensuring Accuracy and Continuous Improvement
  To maintain accuracy, Walmart has implemented automated testing to verify Wally’s numerical responses against known data points. The company also uses an AI judge to evaluate Wally’s responses and incorporates user feedback to refine its capabilities. Walmart’s tech team actively reviews suggestions from merchants, using them to shape future updates and improvements for Wally.

AI Trailblazer Takeaways: Could Walmart be the poster child for how to implement AI. They make a strong case. Not only are they strategically using AI to empower it’s buyers and merchants, they recognize the limitations of AI and put into place a series of checks and balances. Way to go Wally!

Magnificent 7 Links

Amazon debuts gen AI-powered Alexa+ (Yahoo Finance)

Satya Nadella says AI is yet to have its Excel moment (TechRadar)

Other Links of the Week

Family docs embrace AI tools (POLITICO)

This new AI tool helps Walmart’s merchandising team plan (FC Fast Company)

10 key reasons AI went mainstream overnight - and what happens next (ZDNET)

AI Ate the Web. Now It’s Coming Back for Seconds. (Intelligencer)

Could Artificial General Intelligence Adoption Start a Civil War? (Small Wars Journal By Arizona State University)

Humanity May Achieve the Singularity Within 12 Months (Popular Mechanics)

U.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About AI Use (Pew Research Center)

The Decentralized AI Tide Is Rising—But Most Don’t Know It (Forbes)

A Nobel laureate on the economics of artificial intelligence (MIT Technology Review)

AI agents could make the internet go dark (Business Insider)

Can AI help beat poverty? Researchers test ways to aid people (Nature)

A Disney Worker Downloaded an AI Tool. It Led to a Hack That Ruined His Life. (WSJ)

‘Fantasy’ AI Video, Shared by Trump, of Gaza as Luxury Resort Draws Scorn (The New York Times)

AI Trailblazers Upcoming Forums Calendar

• March 13th, 2025 - AI Trailblazers Agent Summit at HumanX, Las Vegas, NV

• June 5th, 2025 - AI Trailblazers Summer Summit, New York, NY

• December 3rd, 2025 - AI Trailblazers Winter Summit, New York, NY

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