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The retail industry is undergoing a seismic transformation, and the companies leading the charge are not the ones with the flashiest technology — they are the ones rethinking what it means to serve a customer. Sam's Club, the Walmart-owned membership warehouse operating nearly 600 locations across the United States, has emerged as one of the most compelling case studies in how AI-driven personalization, closed-loop data, and human-centered design can converge to reshape the entire retail experience.
The numbers tell the story. U.S. retail media ad spend is projected to approach $70 billion in 2026, growing faster than the broader digital advertising market. Sam's Club has announced plans to double its membership and sales over the next decade, open 30 new locations, and phase out traditional checkout systems entirely in favor of AI-powered, frictionless alternatives. This is not incremental change. This is a wholesale reimagining of what a membership retail model can look like when technology and humanity work in concert.
In a recent episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, AI keynote speaker Matt Britton sat down with Diana Marshall, EVP and chief experience officer at Sam's Club, to explore exactly how the retailer is building this future. Their conversation, recorded live at CES in Las Vegas, reveals a leadership philosophy that every enterprise navigating AI transformation should study closely.
For decades, warehouse clubs competed primarily on price and product assortment. The value proposition was straightforward: pay a membership fee, access bulk goods at lower prices. But that playbook alone is no longer enough to differentiate in a market where consumers have more options and higher expectations than ever before.
Diana Marshall recognizes this shift. When she joined Sam's Club nearly three years ago after a 21-year career spanning Walmart's supply chain, merchandising, and operations functions, one of her first moves was to formalize an experience organization within the brand — a first in the entire Walmart enterprise. The goal was not to abandon the fundamentals of price, assortment, and trust but to build a layer of differentiation on top of them.
The vision Marshall describes is a shift from what the industry has called "frictionless" retail to something more ambitious: effortless retail. The distinction matters. Frictionless implies removing obstacles. Effortless implies creating experiences so intuitive, so personal, and so enjoyable that the member barely notices the technology powering them. It is a shift from competing on value alone to competing on how members feel — across physical clubs, digital channels, and every human interaction in between.
Research backs this up. According to recent industry analysis, brands that lead in customer experience grow revenue significantly faster and report higher profits than competitors that lag behind. In a membership model like Sam's Club, where the relationship between brand and consumer is ongoing and measurable, experience becomes the single most powerful lever for retention and growth.
One of the most underappreciated insights in retail transformation is that customer experience cannot outpace employee experience. Marshall makes this point emphatically: you cannot build a world-class member experience if the associates delivering it are not themselves supported, empowered, and engaged.
This is not abstract theory. Data from Qualtrics' 2026 Employee Experience Trends report found that when employee experience is poor, customer experience suffers directly — and that part-time and frontline workers, the very people who interact with customers most frequently, often report the lowest levels of engagement and satisfaction. Companies with strong employee experience programs see measurably higher customer satisfaction, stronger retention, and faster revenue growth.
At Sam's Club, Marshall has invested in rethinking the associate experience from onboarding through daily operations. The investment spans better tools, clearer leadership communication, and a culture that treats associates as the competitive advantage they are. In a technology-heavy era where automation handles an increasing share of routine tasks, the moments that associates create with members — the recommendations, the problem-solving, the genuine human connection — become disproportionately valuable.
As Matt Britton has observed in his AI keynote presentations, the most successful enterprises in the AI era are not replacing humans with machines. They are using machines to make humans more effective. Sam's Club exemplifies this principle. Technology handles inventory, checkout verification, and data processing. Associates handle the experiences that build loyalty.
The structural advantage of a membership model in the age of AI cannot be overstated. Unlike traditional retailers that see anonymous transactions, Sam's Club knows exactly who is buying what, when, where, and how often. Every scan, every purchase, every app interaction feeds into a closed-loop data system that provides full attribution across the entire member journey.
Marshall describes building unified data systems that power what the industry calls "next-best-action engines" — AI systems that analyze a member's history, preferences, and behavior patterns to determine the most relevant offer, recommendation, or experience to deliver next. This is the difference between broad campaigns that treat every consumer the same and highly contextual experiences delivered at scale.
The impact is measurable. Sam's Club reports that nearly half of its new member growth comes from Gen Z and millennial consumers, and approximately 40% of in-store shoppers engage with the app or website in the week before they visit a club. These are not passive consumers. They are digitally engaged members whose behavior generates the very data that makes AI personalization possible.
This closed-loop advantage extends to Sam's Club's retail media capabilities as well. The Member Access Platform, or MAP, uses AI-driven propensity modeling and multi-touch attribution to help brand partners understand exactly how every touchpoint contributes to conversion. Machine learning models adapt based on product category, past purchases, demographics, and shopping behavior to reduce irrelevant impressions and increase engagement.
Britton, who founded and leads Suzy, the AI-powered consumer intelligence platform, has long argued that the brands winning in this environment are those that treat data not as a byproduct of transactions but as the foundation of every strategic decision. Sam's Club demonstrates what that principle looks like in practice.
The retail media landscape has exploded. Global retail media ad spend now exceeds $160 billion, and the channel is projected to continue double-digit growth through the end of the decade. With 277 retail media networks now operating globally, the space is increasingly crowded and competitive.
What makes Sam's Club's approach distinctive is how it frames its media network. Marshall describes the Member Access Platform not as another retail media network optimizing for impressions and clicks but as a "retail experience network" designed to improve the member experience while simultaneously driving measurable results for brand partners.
This is not just a branding exercise. MAP's closed-loop measurement capabilities give advertisers something most media channels cannot: deterministic attribution that connects ad exposure directly to purchase behavior. The platform uses AI to serve personalized content that feels like a natural extension of the shopping experience rather than an interruption.
Sam's Club has also been exploring how generative AI can enhance product discovery and search, helping members make faster and more informed purchasing decisions. The broader Walmart enterprise has partnered with Google to integrate shopping capabilities into the Gemini AI assistant, enabling members to discover products, receive personalized recommendations, and complete purchases through conversational AI interfaces.
For brand marketers, the implication is clear. Retail media is no longer a performance marketing sidecar. It is becoming the primary interface between brands and consumers — and the networks that prioritize experience over impressions will capture a disproportionate share of the estimated $70 billion in U.S. retail media spend projected for 2026.
Perhaps the most striking element of Marshall's leadership philosophy is how centered it remains on human values at a time when the industry conversation is dominated by automation and algorithms. Her leadership mantra — "Be kind. Be curious. Be inclusive. Tell the truth always." — is not the typical language of a retail technology transformation.
But that is precisely what makes it powerful. In a conversation with Britton, Marshall emphasizes that technology scales performance, but culture scales impact. AI can optimize pricing, personalize promotions, and eliminate checkout lines. It cannot build trust, inspire teams, or create the moments of genuine connection that turn a transaction into a relationship.
This perspective aligns with what Britton explores in his national bestseller Generation AI, which examines how technology is reshaping not just business strategy but the human behaviors, expectations, and relationships that underpin it. The leaders who will thrive in this environment are those who understand that AI is an amplifier, not a replacement, for the human qualities that define great brands.
Marshall also advocates for risk-taking and embracing imperfection — a leadership posture that is especially important in a period of rapid technological change. Organizations that wait for perfect data, perfect systems, or perfect strategies before acting will find themselves perpetually behind. The ones that experiment, iterate, and learn from failure while maintaining a clear set of values will build the resilience required to lead.
Sam's Club deploys AI across multiple dimensions of its business, including personalized member recommendations powered by closed-loop data, AI-verified checkout systems that eliminate traditional registers, and machine learning models within its Member Access Platform that optimize advertising relevance. The retailer is also exploring generative AI for product discovery and conversational shopping through its integration with Google's Gemini platform.
A retail experience network, as defined by Sam's Club's Member Access Platform, is designed to improve the member experience while delivering measurable results for brand partners. Unlike traditional retail media networks that focus primarily on ad impressions and click metrics, an experience network uses first-party membership data and closed-loop attribution to serve personalized content that feels like a natural part of the shopping journey rather than an interruption.
Research consistently shows that employee experience directly drives customer experience. Organizations with high employee engagement see significantly higher customer satisfaction scores and faster revenue growth. At Sam's Club, investing in associate onboarding, tools, leadership culture, and empowerment creates the conditions for the human moments that build member loyalty — moments that technology alone cannot replicate.
First-party data from membership models provides deterministic, closed-loop attribution that connects browsing behavior, purchase history, and engagement patterns at the individual level. This data powers next-best-action engines and propensity models that deliver personalized experiences at scale. Unlike third-party data that relies on probabilistic matching, first-party membership data enables precision targeting and measurement that is increasingly valuable as privacy regulations tighten.
The conversation between Matt Britton and Diana Marshall on The Speed of Culture podcast offers a masterclass in what it looks like when a legacy retail brand embraces AI transformation without losing sight of the human elements that drive lasting loyalty. Sam's Club is not chasing technology for its own sake. It is building a model where AI serves the member, associates are empowered to create meaningful moments, and data flows seamlessly between every touchpoint to deliver experiences that feel personal and effortless.
For business leaders navigating their own AI transformation journeys, the lesson is clear: the future does not belong to the brands with the most sophisticated algorithms. It belongs to the brands that use those algorithms in service of experiences people actually want. To explore how these themes apply to your organization and industry, discover Matt Britton's keynote speaking platform or connect with his team directly.
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