Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM)
Home furnishings stores and e-commerce. Read October 19, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending February 1, 2026, filed March 26, 2026. Ranked 20 of the 94 Consumer Cyclical companies read so far, by the share within reach now.
Within reach now
24%
End of 2028
31%
Employees, annual report
19,800
Leading staffing pattern
Furniture and Home Furnishings Retailers
Share of the working time within reach, long-run pace, four times in five
- Now24%
- End of 202730%
- End of 202831%
- End of 203031%
What changes for its people by the end of 2028, by its industries' figures
- Stays with people 68%
- Becomes checking a model's work 19%
- Handed over with lighter checks 12%
A home furnishings retailer whose filing states one total and names its stores, care centers and distribution facilities without counting them, so the retail and warehousing patterns follow description.
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 24% now, 30% at the end of 2027, 31% at the end of 2028, 31% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 31% desk work, 20% people work and 48% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 68% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 19% becomes checking a model's work and 12% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
19,800 employees as of February 1, 2026 (stated). No count by country is stated in the sections read.
The filing: “As of February 1, 2026, we had approximately 19,800 employees, who we refer to as associates, who are a mix of full-time, part-time and seasonal team members.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture and Home Furnishings Retailers | 80% | By description (c): the filing describes a home furnishings retailer whose associates work in retail stores, customer care centers and distribution facilities, with the Pottery Barn (38% of fiscal 2025 revenue), West Elm (24%), Williams Sonoma (17%) and Pottery Barn Kids and Teen (15%) brands sold in stores and online; the store, care center and corporate staff are read at 80% since no count by kind of location is stated. |
| Warehousing and Storage | 20% | By description (c): the distribution facilities the filing names, which fulfill the e-commerce orders that make up most of its sales, are read at a fifth of the workforce since no count is stated. |
What the filing says about the workforce: About 19,800 associates, a mix of full-time, part-time and seasonal team members, with part-time and seasonal associates hired for the peak season mainly in stores, customer care centers and distribution facilities; none represented by a collective bargaining agreement.
What the filing says about AI
15 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing names the growing use of AI and generative AI, and the consumer behavior changes they bring, among the shifts in the media and advertising environment its success depends on adapting to.
- “(federal, state and local) and international tax laws and trade policies and regulations; our ability to mitigate current and potential future tariffs; the complementary nature of our e-commerce and retail channels; the plans, strategies, initiatives and objectives of management for future operations; our ability to execute strategic priorities and growth initiatives, including those regarding...”
- “Our continued success depends in part on our ability to adapt to a rapidly changing media environment, including our reliance on social media and 12 Table of Contents online advertising campaigns, and more recently the growing use of artificial intelligence ("AI") and generative AI, as well as changes to consumer behavior based on these new technologies.”
- “The competitive challenges facing us include: anticipating and quickly responding to changing consumer demands or preferences and doing so better than our competitors; maintaining favorable brand recognition and achieving customer perception of value; marketing and competitively pricing our products to consumers; controlling and managing our costs, including advertising spend; managing against...”
- “We must continually respond to changing consumer preferences and buying trends relating to e-commerce usage, including an emphasis on mobile e-commerce and increasing adoption of AI-enabled shopping solutions, including personalized recommendations, chatbots and agentic checkout.”
- “Our success in e-commerce has been strengthened in part by our ability to leverage the information we have on our customers to infer customer interests and affinities such that we can personalize the experience they have with us, including through the use of AI-enabled solutions.”
Its annual reports, year by year
Sentences naming AI in each annual report, counted by one rule, beside the median report in the Index that year. Each count links its filing. Every company, by year and sector
- Fiscal 20210median 0
- Fiscal 20221median 0
- Fiscal 20233median 1
- Fiscal 20245median 4
- Fiscal 202515median 10
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-02-01 | 19,800 | 2026-03-26 | 10-K |
| 2025-02-02 | 19,600 | 2025-03-27 | 10-K |
| 2024-01-28 | 19,300 | 2024-03-20 | 10-K |
| 2023-01-29 | 21,100 | 2023-03-24 | 10-K |
| 2022-01-30 | 12,200 | 2022-03-28 | 10-K |
| 2021-01-31 | 12,200 | 2021-03-30 | 10-K |
| 2020-02-02 | 27,000 | 2020-03-27 | 10-K |
| 2019-02-03 | 28,200 | 2019-04-04 | 10-K |
| 2018-01-28 | 27,800 | 2018-03-29 | 10-K |
| 2017-01-29 | 28,300 | 2017-03-30 | 10-K |
| 2016-01-31 | 28,100 | 2016-03-31 | 10-K |
| 2015-02-01 | 26,800 | 2015-04-02 | 10-K |
| 2014-02-02 | 28,100 | 2014-04-03 | 10-K |
| 2013-02-03 | 26,800 | 2013-04-04 | 10-K |
| 2012-01-29 | 26,900 | 2012-03-29 | 10-K |
| 2011-01-30 | 28,000 | 2011-03-31 | 10-K |
| 2010-01-31 | 26,000 | 2010-04-01 | 10-K |
| 2009-02-01 | 30,000 | 2009-04-02 | 10-K |
| 2008-02-03 | 39,000 | 2008-04-03 | 10-K |
| 2007-01-28 | 38,800 | 2007-03-29 | 10-K |
| 2006-01-29 | 37,200 | 2006-04-07 | 10-K |
| 2005-01-30 | 36,000 | 2005-04-15 | 10-K |
| 2004-02-01 | 36,049 | 2004-04-15 | 10-K |
| 2003-02-02 | 32,000 | 2003-04-15 | 10-K |
| 2002-02-03 | 27,000 | 2002-04-29 | 10-K |
| 2001-01-28 | 22,000 | 2001-04-26 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- Pattern shares rest on the filing's description of its kinds of location (c); no count by kind of location is stated.
- The U.S. share is not stated in the sections read.
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0000719955-26-000059, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
The report on Williams-Sonoma, Inc., $29
This page as a document to keep, with what it does not show: the share within reach at every date on three paces and two reliabilities, a typical workforce of this shape at the stated headcount role by role and task by task (the industries' staffing, never the company's roster), where to start, what changes for the people and what they would learn, every sentence in the filing that names AI, the headcount by year, the companies read with the same leading pattern, the method and a citation line. To print or save as a PDF, open again in your browser for a year.
See the report, $29See the sample first: Walmart's report is free
Questions about this company
- How much of Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 24% now and 31% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does Williams-Sonoma, Inc. employ?
- 19,800 as of February 1, 2026, as its annual report for the period ending February 1, 2026 states.
- What kinds of work make up Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 2 industry staffing patterns, the largest Furniture and Home Furnishings Retailers; by those patterns the work is about 31% desk work, 20% people work and 48% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Williams-Sonoma, Inc.'s annual report say about AI?
- 15 sentences in the filing name AI. Its annual reports for fiscal 2021 to 2025 name it in 0, 1, 3, 5 and 15 sentences, year by year. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on October 19, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.