Walmart manager builds AI app to get truck drivers home faster

A Walmart regional load manager used a Google AI certification course and the retailer’s own coding agent, Code Puppy, to build an app that helps truck drivers get home faster by matching freight more efficiently. Leo Garcia, who oversees hundreds of semi-trailers moving merchandise through the Chicago area, spent more than five years as a truck driver before moving into a desk role, and said the training gave him the basics he had been missing.

Garcia took the course through Walmart’s online education portal for employees, part of a broader push that also includes a similar credential program with OpenAI. He said the AI training and other data-analysis work changed the way he looks at operational problems, turning a line-item headache into something he could actually build around.

The tool Garcia built scans hundreds of available truckloads in the region and flags the best five or so options based on location, timing and other factors. In one example, it helped redirect a driver in Wisconsin who was waiting three extra hours for a scheduled load. The app found a different load five miles away going to the same town, kept that driver on schedule and allowed another driver to pick up the original load later.

The goal is to reduce empty miles, the costly practice of sending trucks back without freight.

Live Better U offers degrees, career certificates and industry-recognized training at no cost. Walmart says the program has helped more than 126,000 associates while saving more than $812 million in tuition. The company’s education page lists both an OpenAI training certificate and a Google AI certificate among its AI offerings.

In September 2025, Walmart said it would invest nearly $1 billion in skills training through 2026 and give U.S. frontline and office-based associates access to customized AI training through OpenAI beginning in 2026. The company also said its Academy has more than 3.5 million participants, and that 75% of its salaried U.S. store, club and supply chain managers started as hourly associates. In June 2025, Walmart said its AI task-management tool cut shift-planning time from 90 minutes to 30 in early results, while its translation tool worked in 44 languages.