Sam’s Club’s Diana Marshall on AI, Membership & the Future of Retail Experience

Up today on the Speed of Culture podcast, we are live in Las Vegas at CES and thrilled to welcome Diana Marshall, the EVP and Chief Experience Officer at Sam's Club. Diana is a seasoned retail and operations leader with more than 2 decades of experience at Walmart, known for building seamless human-centered experience at massive scale. In a role today at Sam's Club, she oversees membership, personalization, product and design, data, and retail media, all in service of creating meaningful moments for members and associates. Like Diana, So great to see you today.

Yes, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Absolutely. You know, I was reading your background. I was preparing for this interview and saw that you been at, at Sam's Club and Walmart, uh, for over 20 years, and you started off as a replenishment trainee in consumables. Tell me about that experience. Tell me about why starting in the proverbial mailroom is really a good start for somebody on their path to becoming an executive.

Well, I'd like to tell you it was all planned out, but in, in full transparency, it was actually 21 years ago this week. Wow. I started with the company as a trainee and I sort of joke and say—

You're celebrating your 21st birthday in Vegas, right?

I am. Here we are. Here we are every year. But, you know, I, you know, had some options, decided, hey, Walmart seems like a good resume builder coming straight out of college. Maybe I should do this for a couple of years. And I think like many of our associates, I would say a good job has turned into a great career. And, you know, one of the benefits of starting in the training programs that we offer is I got to learn the full enterprise. I got to— I remember back then they even let me work in the warehouse distribution center for a couple of weeks. I went and set modulars in the stores. And so, you know, spent my first 6 months to a year really learning all of the different facets and then got to take on a pretty decent-sized role for being, you know, 6 months to a year out of college. Early on, I remember being a little bit nervous the first year when I celebrated my first anniversary of like, whoo, I made it through. I'm not sure exactly what I was doing, but here we go. I now, I now will be much better about this. So things I've learned throughout the years that certainly started early, being curious, asking lots of questions have certainly served me well. And the good news is I've been able to do lots of different things with the company since then. So I loved replenishment. I do think starting in learning inventory and all of the detailed work that happens to make inventory arrive on your front door or on the shelves in the store certainly has helped me. Get to have opportunities to do things across. So I was a merchant. I think being a merchant is one of the best jobs in retail. I had to work in lots of different areas throughout the Walmart US business. And my kids still joke and call themselves the Walmart baby, test babies, because I ran the baby department for over 4 years. And they were babies, so they tried everything and they think it's very cool. Good news, they survived. They're doing well. So, you know, the test babies are okay, but They're now grown up. Anyhow, I then have had the chance to be at Sam's Club after 18 years at Walmart US for almost 3 years. Gotcha. And really learning a different side of the business with marketing and membership. But I think that background in how everything runs, all of the details, being able to be a good partner through the years has certainly helped set me up for it.

And as you look back across the 20-plus years you've been at the company, what are some of the biggest changes in the business of retail? That you've experienced?

Yes, I would have to say, I think the thing that is constant in retail is change. And I can't imagine a year that I've gone into where there wasn't something big that transformed. But, you know, I've gone through the era of stores are going away. Everybody thought we were all going to go online, right? That was a moment in time that was certainly a big one. There have been, you know, lots of different— the pandemic, certainly everybody went through, but that was a different moment. I was in the general merchandise business and there was a moment where nobody knew what to do. We didn't sell anything. All of a sudden it's like, did I fail? Did I buy the wrong thing? Right. And then everybody bought everything. So I would say each year has certainly brought a different challenge. But, you know, I think good team, getting the right people around you, having a clear strategy, and then being able to really learn how to be flexible and agile and sort of take everything with a calm mind and approach it with ease. I think certainly, you know, you have to learn how to sort of wait it out in retail and be very thoughtful about what's your long-term strategy.

Yeah, of course. So today you are the Chief Experience Officer at Sam's Club, which a lot of people don't know is part of Walmart. They just don't think of it. What does experience look like? Like how do you define it, you know, across price, convenience, emotion in the way that the consumer experiences the brand? In an omnichannel way?

Yes. Well, you know, we've actually only been focused and really put this organization together a year ago after CES, funny enough. So we are, you know, on an ambition to be the world's best club retailer. And as we think about that, we know price, assortment, and trust, you know, making sure we have clear value, that we've got the right assortment, and that we are always building trust with our members is critical. And I think everybody in retail certainly should be focused on those three things. But we decided last year as we put out this ambitions that actually we can differentiate and win with experience. We have the opportunity really to bring a new vision to life. And so we've sort of stood up the experience org in the last year and we've built this vision on how do we create effortless personal experiences that bring joy and foster community. And I can tell you, I've spent a lot of time with the team on every single word, really making sure that we're clear on What does experience mean at Sam's Club and how do we lean into it? So we know it means making sure we're taking advantage of our fulfillment channels. We have pickup, we have delivery, we have express delivery for our members.

Lots of ways people can buy. Yes.

But also we have amazing associates. And the thing that I love is, as I read letters, people actually pick Sam's Club because of our associates and our human interaction. And so how do we really lean into that? You know, human-led, tech-powered experience has been really important. So excited to see there's little moments that matter that our associates can bring. And then there's also big moments that matter to just make it effortless and easy through technology. And so we've been really focused on both.

And how do you know? So obviously it's a big organization. How many retail locations does Sam's Club have?

600.

600. So that's a—

it's a lot. 601, actually.

There you go. So that's major scale. And obviously a huge part of experience is the people side and the associates, how they interact. How do you know where to start in terms of really moving the needle? And I would imagine you're judging, gauging this through an NPS or some other measure to see, are you moving the needle on experience? Where do you start and where do you get the inputs to give you conviction starting in that place?

Right. Well, I can tell you, as we stood up this organization, we've never actually had an experience organization in the Walmart enterprise.

Many companies don't have that.

You know, it's kind of new to retail. It's definitely trending, but, but somewhat new. So really went out and learned. And I think the first thing that struck me was you actually can't build a great member experience without a great associate experience. And so we've been really thoughtful about how do we make sure that we're setting up our associates, not just with the right tools, but also with the right leaders, the right conversations, the right onboarding. How do you make day one great to ensure that actually the member experience can improve? So that's been certainly, I would say, number one takeaway as I thought about this organization. I think secondly, we, have studied NPS for many years at Sam's Club. I think we've prided ourselves on— we start every week with it, we monitor it very closely. But we've actually, you know, as we've gotten so much data and there's so much social chatter and just, you know, plethora of things you can look at now, we've actually built what we call an experience score. It takes NPS, it takes feedback. Yes, it takes feedback from multiple different channels, and we can look at it now and say like, hey, dear Club, uh, you know, 8201, Here's some things you need to focus on to improve with your members. And it's feedback both from associates as well as members. And we're going to continue to evolve that to really improve the business. But really excited on how do we move from just one metric of NPS to really taking a plethora of data and using it to really improve that member experience, but also look for where can we continue to make the associate experience better at the same time. Right.

And it's not lost on me that you're, you're saying member experience versus shopper experience because your customers are members. Yes, they pay an annual fee in order to be able to access your platform. How does that change the dynamic and, and level of expectations with the people who walk into the store? Because they are paying, and I would imagine that changes, you know, what, you know, they think they should be getting just even through walking through the doors.

I think about it as, you know, membership is our business. Yeah. And so my goal is really how do you make sure every member gets the full benefit of what Sam's Club offers? In my mind, I think about it and I describe to the team as they give us money up front, they're expecting an ROI from us. So how do we make sure each of them really get it? And how do we make sure that they understand all of the different things that beyond just getting access to shop in the clubs or access to the assortment, which the merchants do an amazing job really bringing the best of the best and curating it to take the work out of the members' task list. But it's making sure that we give them visibility to, you know, we have I think 10 years running the best pharmacists that have been rated. Like, how do we make sure people know that we have really great care? You can have a great experience. How do we know that? Make sure that they know that you can get delivery if you don't have time to get to the club, you can, you know, get something to your front door in 3 hours or less. So we're really thoughtful about, yes, they're giving us money. How do we make sure we do just the basics on assortment and value? But then how do we surprise and delight them through other benefits, partnerships, and the technology, really making it effortless? So we've done a lot of work around in the past on launching Scan and Go, being able to shop very easily. The team's done a great job where the majority of our members just walk out without having to stand in line on a receipt check. And that's all based on member feedback. But we're really thinking about like, it used to be we thought about removing friction. Now we're thinking about how do you just make it easy and effortless? How do you not put the work on the member associate? Let us do the hard work and use tech or use our associate to ask to, to eliminate it and improve the experience.

Fantastic. And obviously, as part of your membership platform, you have a lot of data. So that's one thing that you have that, you know, many other retailers don't have at the scale you have, because obviously in order for you to become a member, you have to submit your information. You're learning more about these members. How has that changed the role, your role overall, and how are you taking that data and using it to drive your strategy.

Yes, you know, I sort of joke and say one of the things I'm most proud of in the last couple of years is actually the work we've done around data. And sometimes, you know, people take data for granted a little bit. It's actually really hard to get it all in one place, get all of the attributes, and the team has done an amazing job getting all of our member data set up so that we can truly start to personalize. Back to that, how do we build this personal experience for each member? And I couldn't be more proud of the work. I never thought I would be cheering and smiling over people telling me, hey, I got all of this in one place. Now we're able to build these next best action engines. We're able to learn and test in new ways that we've never been able to do. And because we are a membership model, we've got full closed-loop attribution so we can measure differently. We can understand what's working.

A marketer's dream, really.

It is pretty incredible. I do have to say, so excited as we move into the year ahead on We've started some great work in the past year around personalization, but I think you'll see Sam's Club really take a step up in how do we make sure the experience truly is unique to you.

Yeah, I think hyper-personalization is one of the huge unlocks of the AI era. You know, it's been a jargon that's been thrown around for so long in our industry, but it's been traditionally pretty hard to execute. But in the age of AI, if you have structured, clean data, you can take that, put it into a model and really start to put it to work in order to deliver the right message to the right consumer at the right time. I personally don't believe brands should be having one-to-many emails at all anymore. I think every, every email campaign, every messaging campaign should be one-to-one in scale. And increasingly, I think that's the dynamic that consumers are going to expect.

Right. And now with AI, to your point, what was impossible is now possible, right? And it's so exciting to see the speed at which you can start to test, learn, and really implement it. So we actually— I was laughing— we launched in our last quarter some what we call our next best action engine on our homepage. And I was joking with the team, my proposals, you know, I lead the experience team, but as I went through them, I was like, oh, I had forgotten about these benefits I could get and reminders of partnerships that we had as I went through it. So I think it'll be really exciting as we continue to scale that across the full end-to-end experience, whether it's our physical assets in the clubs or even whether it's communications like you mentioned and certainly e-commerce. Pulling it all together, there's, there's a lot ahead.

Yeah. When you look at the, the category, you know, I guess it's your big box membership, you know, there's one other major competitor, but then obviously you have the big box Walmart category, which is more on the, on the value side of the equation. And, you know, if you zoom out and look at the macroeconomic landscape, especially in the US, we're seeing this kind of barbell economy emerge where the middle class has a lot of pressure, and then you have this rising ultra-high net worth category, and then you have an increasing percentage of Americans who really value, you know, price and convenience and other attributes. Where do you see the business heading over time, and how does your brand, I guess, drive a roadmap in a way that's congruent with the Walmart brand? And how much coordination do you do with Walmart itself?

So, you know, I think for the Club channel specifically, COVID was certainly a benefit. Yeah, to us, people became more aware of it and more interested and hoarding stuff for a while. It was definitely a thing, right? I still remember the toilet paper closets where people were, you know, everything they could.

Paper towels. Yes.

Yeah. Yes. So, you know, that certainly helped, I think, from an awareness standpoint. And since then, we've really seen both younger generations certainly continuing to be interested as well as, you know, everybody always thinks about bulk savings and value. But actually people are figuring out, oh, I can save money. And so we are seeing growth in what I would say is all income levels, certainly. And we think from a Sam's Club standpoint, our total addressable market is probably much larger than how we used to think about it. Yeah. As a result of, you know, just awareness of what we offer.

It's also fun going there. It's fun. It really is fun.

Yes. Yes. You can get a little, you know, you can get all of your basics. You can save money as a result. But also we like the surprise and delight.

Yeah. Find random things that you never thought would be there.

That's right. And that's part of what you get when you come in the physical clubs. But also we're working on how do you bring that to life through e-commerce and our app, et cetera. And we're really proud because we have over half of our members digitally engaged. It's a great opportunity for us to communicate with them and really give them this experience that many others in the club channel can't, which I think is unique. When you ask about how do we work with Walmart, the good news is we can actually leverage all of the amazing work that the enterprise has done. And so we are focused on making sure we take advantage of that, which is helping us move faster from launching capabilities, really improving the experience. But then also we can focus on building Sam's Club unique experiences that matter. Sure. So actually last year we launched a new front end of our app and we partnered with the Walmart Enterprise on actually bringing that to life. And we've seen great response from our members and we're continuing to really improve that experience. Honestly, there's launches almost every week, every 2 weeks that are happening to add new capabilities, which is all because we're leveraging the full enterprise. But then we're also able to spend, you know, time and resources on improving our membership, whether it's improving our associate experience and how we train and give them tools that are unique to Sam's Club specifically, or whether it's doing some things that are specific to membership because all of our business is based on membership, which is different than, than Walmart itself. So we're definitely seeing value from that and it's definitely helped speed us up as we've started to think through that.

Yeah. And looking ahead towards the future here at CES and it's an exciting time of year always, everyone gathers together and, you know, with a fresh start and looking towards the year and it's all about innovation and, and these new technological advancements. And one area of discussion here in Vegas this year has been around the changing ways that people will buy. You know, ChatGPT made a lot of inroads in 2025, partnering with companies like Etsy, allowing people to shop over AI chatbots. I'm just curious from your perspective, not necessarily something that's involved with Sam's Club strategy moving forward. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But how do you see the consumer continuing to change the way that they buy in an AI-powered era?

Yeah, you know, I think we're learning quite a bit. We've done quite a few tests, whether it's in search and trying to understand, are they going to use generative AI in search in the historical way? We've, you know, because we partner with Walmart, they've done a lot of great work like launching Sparky and some of the continued innovations there. And you should expect us to continue to learn with them. But we've also, you know, we've partnered with OpenAI and also, you know, giving access to Sam's Club as, members were shopping or non-members. We actually think it's a great acquisition channel for us as well.

I was unaware of that.

Yes, we— I guess that was Black Friday, I think. Okay. So obviously went live. So we are, you know, continuing to expand partnerships, really make sure— I think it's important to be on the front end. And the good news is you can test and learn so quickly now on what's working. And so we're tracking it very closely. You know, I look at the trends on, you know, how is search changing, where are members going?

Sure.

And how can we continue to update our app or our internal experience based on what we're seeing externally to make sure we're serving. So more to come, certainly. It's definitely top of mind as we think about priorities for Sam's Club in 2026. And you should expect some continued news on how we'll continue to evolve and learn through that.

Very cool. Another area I know that you do a lot of work is in the retail media realm, and that has obviously been a white-hot topic in the advertising industry. A lot of CPG companies have gravitated towards retail media just because obviously you get that sort of closed-loop attribution, full funnel, all those things. Would love to hear about Sam's Club's retail media approach, why you think it's something that you're focusing on moving forward.

Yes. So we have our member access platform. It's called MAP, which is our advertising business, and we actually renamed it. I think we're the first retail experience network. So as we've really leaned into experience as a differentiator, we believe that our ads business is not just search and display like everyone else. But really an opportunity for us to improve the member experience. And back to that, we have full closed-loop attribution. It's actually— we can do really great measurements for advertisers and how that comes to life and what does it do for their brands, both short-term and long-term. So we're really thinking about that business in 3 different ways. One, how do we, you know, drive the experience? And last year we did some tests and learning and we had an IndyCar partnership. And so what did that look like? We actually helped sign up new members. Which is a new muscle for us that we're excited about, not just improving our current members' experience, but also leveraging our ads team to really help us acquire new members and drive awareness and partnership. So we had some great learnings in that IndyCar partnership. I would say secondly, really proud of some of the measurement progress last year and honestly some new exciting measurement ahead as we think about the ongoing debates in a retail media network of what's the right measure and does it matter and who, who does it right and who doesn't. I think we're going to continue to lead there because of that full membership data and our ability to truly personalize in that space. Then lastly, I would say we are automating and focused on AI in that business. Certainly, I think there's not really anywhere probably in the business that you shouldn't be focused on that, but have definitely made some good progress just improving the process of partnering with us and actually giving our team better tools to do their roles more effectively as well.

So when you're here, obviously that's a lot of initiatives you're overseeing and the world is moving so fast. So when you come somewhere like CES, where— what are you trying to accomplish here and what are some things maybe that you've already seen here that are interesting to you in terms of new innovations moving forward?

Yes. You know, it's fun year after year to see how it evolves. And I was joking with somebody this morning. I'm like, okay, it seems like robots.

Yeah, robots are everywhere.

Automated cars, certainly. It's it's here.

AI everywhere, obviously.

AI everywhere and health. Like, those seem to be the trends that— they were here last year, but definitely some of them have made more progress. I'm still waiting on the robot to help fold laundry. I'm hoping somebody gets that figured out soon. I haven't seen that yet. But I really come to see what's happening from an innovation standpoint. It's a great place to connect, certainly, with all of our partners. But then also, I spend time on just doing sort of what I call speed dating to learn both from, you know, startups that, you know, are pretty brand new. A lot of them I met with yesterday just on AI to learn. And then also our established partners as well. It's a great place to just get a— actually a good start to the year. We all, I think, joke on— it's a fast start. Everybody just went through holiday break straight into CES. But I think it is a good way to just reset, assess where everything is, and really take advantage of— okay, as we're setting priorities for the year ahead, is there something we're missing? Are there new partners we should be having conversations with? What does it look like? So it's definitely a busy couple of days, but I do think it's worth it.

Yeah, absolutely. I love coming here. So shifting gears, we wrap up here. I'd love to hear a little bit more about you and your approach to leadership. So obviously Walmart is famed for the way that they develop people, their approach on leadership. Greatness is in the agency of others. Love to hear how you lead and also what do you look for in somebody who you want to bring on board that you think can be a leader tomorrow?

Yes, I would say, you know, at Walmart, we pride ourselves on being human-led, tech-powered. And so that has been definitely ingrained in me. But as I think about, gosh, the last 21 years, probably the thing that I have learned the most is make sure that you're hiring people and also that you're leading people as humans first. And, you know, I always think it's always the little things. It's never one big thing. You know, when I was early in my career, I actually kept a list of things I would do and I wouldn't do based on leaders I worked for. And because I've worked around the company, I've had a lot of leaders, right? And often actually I go back like, okay, how am I doing? Am I holding myself accountable to what I said years ago mattered the most? But I do think it goes back to I always start conversations and interviews and discussions as I bring people in as humans first. I don't want to know your resume. I don't want to know how smart you are. That's great. That's actually required. And I assume that we're going to make sure We hire the best of the best, but I want to make sure that I'm hiring people that are going to take care of people. I think as I worked in operations, as an example, leading a couple hundred thousand associates, the thing I learned is your communication and priority from a leadership standpoint is the most important, but actually just taking care of people and listening to them matters even more than that. And empathy. Empathy is Critical. And, you know, I always— my team sometimes rolls their eyes at me, but I like to start meetings with like, hey, you know, this— we had a meeting Monday morning. I'm like, tell me about the best moment you had over the holiday break versus just jumping straight into the numbers. And that might seem silly, but to me it's important on one, understanding what's bringing people joy in their personal lives, and then to make sure that they're happy so they can deliver great results for the business. And I think it's important to understand people as a whole versus just one-sided. And we like to, you know, get very focused. And I love results and I have very high expectations, but I actually think leading with empathy, being human first, and making sure I take care of people helps people go the extra mile. Yeah, that's definitely shown throughout different roles.

And drives loyalty and makes them truly care. And I think that shines ultimately on the experience that you're imparting on your customer. That's right. So obviously, we talked at the jump about, you know, where you got started, your humble beginnings, so to speak, and, you know, your ascent to where you are today. As you look back on your career journey at Walmart and now Sam's Club, what are some of the things that you lean into that you think, you know, looking in the rearview mirror were the right things to focus on to make sure that you're developing as a professional and a leader?

You know, I think one of the things that always becomes top of mind to me, and I try to give examples of Here's what I'm learning. Here's what I've messed up on. I think it's important to share your mistakes as a leader. And then just back to the being human first, that has certainly helped. But one thing that I always say is like, we're all perfectly imperfect. And I think that applies to us as people, as humans, but also as, hey, you don't get everything right. And actually, you don't want to, because if you do, it means you aren't taking big enough risks. So I think those are lessons I've learned. I think back often to early on in my career, you know, I asked questions, I sort of pushed the moment, and I was like a replenishment manager sitting in a room proposing a new supply chain flow. And all of a sudden, all these senior vice presidents came in and I was kind of young. I didn't realize the impact of it. But as I look back, I think about challenging, being willing to say, hey, we might make some mistakes, but I think this will make us better. And I think just having that experience through the years and giving examples of where it does work or where it doesn't, work very publicly definitely has helped build sort of the opportunities I've had as well as the teams and the talent that have wanted to work on my team and also done some amazing experiences to really improve the business.

Sure. Awesome. So to wrap here, we always ask our guests if there's a saying or mantra that helps encapsulate their professional journey. So what comes to mind for you?

So, you know, it's funny, I have two boys. I mentioned earlier the Walmart test babies when I was running that department. But they're not anymore. They're 9 and 12, so they're waiting on, you know, what's the cool thing mom can teach them now? Many times they're teaching me things now. Funny how that changes. But I would say the thing that comes to mind is the thing I tell them every night when I put them to bed. I think it matters both personally and professionally, and it's be kind, be curious, be inclusive, and tell the truth always. And I think if you take those just general thoughts to your day, I end my day with my boys all the time with that, and it's important to me. And I also try to remind my teams, like, let's take care of each other. Let's make sure that we're looking at the data the right way. We're looking at the hardest metric. We're pushing ourselves. That's really how I try to approach both my personal and professional.

It's clear that you focus on a values-based system that trickles down from the people who you work with, the way that you look at the brand, the way that imparts the experience on the physical retail locations, and ultimately how it touches the member. That's right. And if you're staying true as a through line, I think then you can know that everything is going to be in a framework that's going to deliver the experience that you envision.

That's right. Yeah. And it can be the little things. It's, you know, bringing a little bit of joy with the team's laugh. We added confetti when you sign up to be a member at Sam's Club. Like, hey, it's a little thing, right? It makes it fun. It's, it's something that's a surprise and delight. So I think that just kind and joyful approach definitely makes a difference.

Awesome. Well, I think that this talk is going to make a big difference today with our audience. I think that you have a very unique leadership and strategic approach to building experience, and I'm looking forward to seeing you continually succeed with Sam's Club and your membership community in the new year.

Thank you.

Thanks. Thanks for joining. On behalf of Suzy Iwi team, thanks again to Diana Marshall, the EVP and Chief Experience Officer at Sam's Club, for joining us today live at CES. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the Speed of Culture podcast. On your favorite podcast platform. Till next time, see you soon, everyone. Take care.