Walmart welcomes AI shopping agents as Amazon shuts them out

US retailer Walmart announced on Wednesday the launch of its Agent Gateway, a system for managing transactions carried out by artificial intelligence (AI) agents on behalf of shoppers. The move follows closely after its biggest competitor, Amazon, started preventing AI agents from buying goods for online customers. The contrast is notable: Amazon and several travel and booking sites have locked agents out entirely, while Walmart is inviting them in.

Walmart President and CEO John Furner outlined the plans at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. The company had already announced a partnership with Meta's agent Muse, and it offers integrations with apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini. The new technology will support agent-based shopping at both Walmart and Sam's Club, its discount warehouse chain.

How the Agent Gateway works

The Agent Gateway is a new MCP server that lets approved agents connect to Walmart via the model context protocol (MCP). Originally created by Anthropic, the protocol allows AI agents to link up with external data sources and tools. At Walmart, an agent can search the online inventory and buy items for its user. The company says customers will be able to shop for their usual brands without sharing personal information or purchase history directly with the agent.

Agent profiles and rules

Next month Walmart will roll out Agent Profiles. Each agent a customer uses will get its own profile in their account, so its purchases appear separately from the customer's own. Shoppers can require approval for every transaction or authorize purchases up to a spending limit they set. Walmart compares this to adding an authorized user to a credit card. Profiles can be deleted at any time, and agent support is open to every Walmart account holder, with no Walmart+ membership required.

Walmart is also introducing terms for AI agents. Its returns process applies even when an agent does not act as intended. Agents may not go beyond what the shopper intends, access payment information, or obtain more data than a task requires. Agents that break the terms will be blocked from the site.