Walmart is building tools to let approved AI agents shop on its platforms, including Sam’s Club. Its new Agent Gateway is designed to connect agents to Walmart’s online inventory and allow them to make purchases for customers, while giving shoppers ways to manage what those agents can do.
Connecting AI agents to Walmart’s store
The Agent Gateway is a new MCP server. The model context protocol, originally created by Anthropic, lets AI agents connect with outside data sources, tools and workflows. Through the gateway, an agent can search Walmart’s online inventory and purchase items for the person using it.
Walmart says the system can help customers shop for familiar brands or products without handing their personal information or purchase history directly to an agent. The retailer is expanding earlier efforts that include a partnership with Meta’s Muse and integrations with AI apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
Walmart President and CEO John Furner described the expansion at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday. The company is preparing for a future in which agent-led shopping may become more common, with the technology intended to serve both Walmart and Sam’s Club customers.
Profiles give shoppers control
Walmart plans to roll out Agent Profiles next month. Customers will be able to create a dedicated profile for each AI agent they use, making that agent’s purchases visible separately from purchases they make themselves.
When someone first shops through the Agent Gateway with a particular agent, Walmart says an Agent Profile will be created. The customer can link it to their Walmart account and choose how much authority to give it. They can require approval for every transaction or allow purchases within a spending limit they set.
The retailer compares these controls to adding an authorized user to a credit card: transactions can be identified, and spending can be capped. Customers can also delete an Agent Profile whenever they choose. Agent support will be available to anyone with a Walmart account; Walmart+ membership is not required.
Rules for agent purchases
Walmart is also introducing terms that set out how AI agents must behave and what they are allowed to do on its site. The retailer says agents cannot act beyond the shopper’s intent, access payment information, or retrieve information unrelated to the task. Agents that violate the terms can be blocked from the site.
The company says its usual returns process applies even when an agent does not act as intended. That policy gives customers a way to address unwanted purchases and may make it easier to try agent-led shopping without worrying that a mistake leaves them stuck with an item.
A different approach to automated shopping
Walmart’s announcement comes after Amazon began blocking AI agents from making purchases on behalf of online shoppers. The article also notes that some travel and booking sites have locked agents out of their websites as consumers adopt the technology.
Walmart is taking the opposite approach: enabling agent access while setting conditions around identity, permissions and spending. The gateway, profiles and retailer’s terms together give shoppers a framework for delegating shopping tasks while keeping purchases visible and setting limits on an agent’s authority.