Walmart's chief people officer Donna Morris warns the U.S. workforce is falling behind China in AI skills, citing that five-year-olds in China are learning DeepSeek while American workers lag in adoption. Major employers like Deloitte, Verizon, and Walmart are rolling out large-scale AI training as corporate leaders warn white-collar jobs could face major disruption within 18 months.

In China, students receive at least eight hours of AI instruction annually, covering chatbot usage and AI ethics. Chinese students also spend more classroom time than U.S. peers. This investment is yielding results: nearly one-third of top global AI talent was born in China, with tech giants offering sky-high compensation to recruit them. When Meta launched its Superintelligence Labs, seven of eleven researchers were Chinese-born.

Over 400 CEOs, including Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Airbnb's Brian Chesky, signed a letter last year advocating for mandatory computer science and AI education in U.S. schools. With AI literacy becoming the fastest-growing skill on LinkedIn and two-thirds of business leaders refusing to hire without AI skills, the gap between U.S. and Chinese workforce preparation could determine economic competitiveness.