NEW YORK, NY October 28, 2025 – As executives across industries race to deploy AI’s transformative potential, another urgent question looms: What do the people who determine a company’s success — employees, consumers, communities, and investors — actually expect from corporate AI implementation?
Today, Just Capital released new survey findings as part of a comprehensive effort to define responsible AI deployment through the eyes of the key population groups. Drawing on a decade of polling the American public, this research, conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll and Robin Hood Foundation, reveals areas of alignment and divergence across two core audiences: the American public and investors.
Just Capital will be tracking these perceptions quarterly as the technology evolves, offering leaders a real-time compass as they navigate a rapidly changing business landscape. The organization will also begin surveying business leaders this fall to compare stakeholder and corporate expectations.
“We’re at an inflection point. Every day, leaders are grappling with both the opportunities AI creates and the risks it poses at scale. What responsible AI leadership looks like is being defined in real time,” says JUST Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “Our research aims to equip corporate leaders with additional insights to realize AI’s full promise including the business value it can unlock and the wider prosperity we all need it to deliver. If we can get this right, everyone wins.”
1. Expectations of productivity
The vast majority (96%) of investors believe AI will have a net positive impact on worker productivity. However, only 47% of the public say AI will result in a net positive impact on productivity.
2. Distribution of AI-related gains
The public is in favor of distributing AI-driven corporate profits across several efforts, including lower prices for customers, workforce supports including for laid-off workers, and investments in safety and security. Investors believe the majority of gains should be allocated to shareholders, but do believe in gains going to other efforts including lower prices for customers.
1. AI safety as a top concern
Despite recent emphasis on an AI race between the United States and international rivals, both the American public and investors are more concerned about preventing accidents, misuse and other consequences of AI. Both groups also see impacts on social stability as a greater concern than U.S. competitiveness.
2. A significant amount of spend toward safety
The majority of the public and investors believe companies should be spending more than 5% of total AI spend on the safety of these tools and platforms. Given recent capital allocations to AI investments, 5% represents a dollar amount in the hundreds of billions. According to JUST Capital tracking to date, top AI developers and users have not publicly disclosed the amount spent on safety.
Are you a corporate executive? Please take our AI-focused survey here to inform how we continue to define and measure AI leadership.
Ten years ago, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon made a bet that flew in the face of conventional retail wisdom: invest heavily in frontline workers through higher wages, better training, and expanded benefits. The result was increased value for the company, shareholders, and their associates. Just’s analysis frequently highlighted this. This week, in a powerful LinkedIn reflection and in remarks from the company’s workforce conference in Bentonville, McMillon connected that decade-long commitment to how the company plans to navigate AI-related transformation.
The timing is striking. Headlines have focused on AI-driven job cuts, and McMillon himself acknowledged that “AI is going to change literally every job”. But he’s using this moment to double down on the philosophy that got Walmart here: “investing in wages, benefits, and education shouldn’t be seen as a line item, it should be valued as the strategic enabler that it is.”
This approach aligns perfectly with what the majority of Americans want. Worker issues such as fair pay, well-being, and training and advancement consistently rank as top priorities in our polling. And our data supports the business case: since 2021, companies excelling on worker issues in our rankings have outperformed the Russell 1000 equally-weighted index by over 20%. McMillon noted that Walmart’s shareholder returns are up about 490% since 2015, outperforming the S&P500.
Behind fair wages, the #2 issue for the American public this year was ethical leadership. McMillon’s remarks may offer the blueprint for ethical leadership in the AI era. He didn’t sugarcoat the challenge. AI will eliminate some jobs and create others. He outlined that the composition of Walmart’s 2.1 million-person workforce will change dramatically over the next three years, even as headcount stays flat. That transparency builds trust.
As we work over the next few months to begin to define what just AI deployment looks like, Walmart’s strategy is an exciting place to start.
Be well,
Martin
(Getty Images/Bill Pugliano)
“Old-timers in our plants were saying, ‘It’s no longer a career, Mr. Farley. Working at Ford is no longer a career.’”
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The Wall Street Journal asks when we will see results of the “epic” levels of AI spending, citing worries many investors have that there is no clear timeline for when they’d see any return, echoing the dotcom bubble.
The New York Times reports that California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a sweeping new AI law that will force companies to report the safety protocols they’re using in development, the greatest risks posed by their technologies, and more.
Fortune reveals that 62% of white collar workers would transition to a trade job if it meant more employment stability and better pay, particularly for younger workers.
The New York Times takes a deeper look at the ways in which the Trump Administration could solve issues with the H-1B program and argues that the proposed $100k fee per new hire is not the solution.
Bloomberg worries that large swaths of Americans no longer have meaningful spending power to impact the economy, which is why stocks continue to grow despite American sentiment being down on the current state of the economy.
Nearly 100,000 government workers resigned this week as part of the Trump administration’s “Deferred Resignation Program” implemented in April of this year, which claims to save taxpayers $28 billion dollars. Newsweek has the story.
Pew Research released several pieces of data on how Americans are using AI. One important insight for company leaders? Most Americans believe it’s important to tell the difference between AI- and human-generated content, but very few feel like they can.
NEW YORK, NY September 29, 2025 – Just Capital today announced three strategic appointments to its C-suite leadership team. These hires, with 50+ years of combined expertise across private and nonprofit sectors, equip the organization to complete a significant transformation into an AI-powered data and insights platform focused on measuring, improving, and showcasing corporate stakeholder performance. This new approach will allow Just Capital to provide valuable intelligence – including critical guidance on responsible AI deployment – that helps corporate executives and boards optimize performance on key worker, customer, community, environmental, and shareholder priorities, driving superior outcomes for business and society. It will also increase the impact and scope of the organization’s rankings, indexes, and investment work.
“Just Capital’s transformation couldn’t come at a more important time,” said Martin Whittaker, Chief Executive Officer of Just Capital. “Corporate leaders today are faced with unprecedented change and complex, often competing stakeholder demands. With these hires, the leadership team at Just Capital is supremely well positioned to help companies navigate this new landscape, while unlocking value for stakeholders, shareholders, and society at large. That’s the win-win-win we’ve always believed in, and we couldn’t be more excited for the future.”
Michael Yoo, PhD, joins Just Capital with nearly 20 years of experience leading double-digit growth at information services businesses including Gartner, Skillsoft, and IndigoAg. As Senior Vice President and Group Vice President of Gartner, Yoo grew the combined revenue of three different business units from $200M to $550M over seven years. Yoo will be responsible for the growth of all earned revenue streams and commercial partnerships.
“I’ve seen firsthand how the right intelligence at the right moment can transform business outcomes,” said Yoo. “I’m excited to build upon Just Capital’s tools and insights to deliver C-suites the information they need to make decisions that benefit all stakeholders while driving superior financial returns.”
Thomas Herbig, PhD, joins Just Capital as Chief Research Officer, bringing decades of experience in management consulting, strategy, sales and marketing, mergers and acquisitions, and product management. Before his appointment, he held a range of corporate, nonprofit, and scientific roles, including serving as Director of the McKinsey Center for the Advancement of Problem Solving. At Just Capital, Herbig will lead the expansion of the organization’s research and data initiatives, equipping business leaders with actionable metrics and advancing the definition and measurement of responsible AI deployment.
“As AI reshapes entire industries and ways of working, we have a critical window to influence how businesses use these transformative technologies,” said Herbig. “Our research, insights, and intelligence will provide the roadmap for responsible AI adoption that creates value for all stakeholders.”
Tyler Spalding joins Just Capital from Golin, where he helped develop and grow the agency’s Corporate Affairs advisory practice. His prior experience extends across strategic communications, strategic partnerships, and social impact and sustainability, at industry leaders such as PayPal, eBay Inc., and Edelman. During his decade leading corporate affairs at PayPal, Spalding partnered with JUST Capital to launch the Worker Financial Wellness Initiative, comprised of 15 companies representing 1.2 million U.S. workers. Spalding will be responsible for shaping Just Capital’s brand and engaging key stakeholders across JUST Capital’s ecosystem, including philanthropic funders.
“As we undertake this exciting organizational evolution, Just Capital has a unique opportunity to inspire the next chapter of responsible business,” said Spalding. “My mission is to ensure every boardroom in America understands that our data doesn’t just measure stakeholder value – it predicts business performance.”
