Walmart CEO John Furner is turning the retailer’s 5,200 U.S. stores into an unstoppable AI engine

As he belts the last note of his pop hit “Mystical Magical,” Benson Boone, in a white muscle tee and skintight jeans, backflips off his piano—and 10,000 people inside the Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas, erupt into raucous applause. And he’s just the warm-up act. Boone is followed by Shaboozey, who sends the audience line dancing in the aisles, then Pink, who blasts through her hits. But the morning’s biggest rock-star reception is reserved for a clean-cut guy in a gray suit jacket, his hair flecked with silver. He steps into the spotlight, an electric guitar slung across his chest, and rips into the intro of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” The crowd lets loose its largest cheers yet. John Furner, 51 and just four months into his role as CEO of Walmart, has been preparing for the spotlight for more than three decades. This Friday morning concert in early June is the culmination of Walmart’s Associates Week, the company’s annual celebration of the people who stock its shelves and ring up its customers. Some 6,500 Walmart workers have flown into Arkansas from 19 countries and across the United States to hear what Furner has planned for the 64-year-old company. After all…