Walmart announces Agent Gateway to allow AI agents to shop for customers

What is new

Walmart has announced the introduction of new technology to support agentic commerce, allowing AI agents to shop on its website and at Sam’s Club [2]. The company is introducing an “Agent Gateway,” which is currently available in beta [1]. This gateway acts as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, using an open standard originally created by Anthropic to allow AI agents to connect to external services and Walmart’s online inventory [2].

Walmart president and CEO John Furner stated at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday that the company is expanding its efforts to prepare for a world where AI agents become mainstream [2]. While competitors like Amazon have blocked shopping agents such as Meta’s Muse AI assistant and Perplexity’s shopping agent, Walmart is opening its platform to them [1]. Walmart has already announced a partnership with Meta’s Muse and offers integrations with apps including ChatGPT and Gemini [2].

How to use it

New features called “Agent Profiles” are scheduled to roll out next month [1, 2]. To use these tools, customers follow these steps:

• Users must have a Walmart account; a Walmart+ membership is not required [2].
• The first time a user shops with a specific agent through the Agent Gateway, an Agent Profile is automatically created [2].
• Users link the Agent Profile to their Walmart account [2].
• Customers can then set specific controls, such as requiring manual approval for every transaction or setting a specific spending limit, such as up to $100 [1, 2].
• Users can review agent purchases separately from their own personal purchases within the Agent Profiles section [1].
• Users have the ability to turn off the agent or delete an Agent Profile at any time [1, 2].

Limits, privacy and academic integrity

Walmart has established specific terms that AI agents must follow to remain on the platform. Agents will be blocked if they do not comply with these rules [1]. The terms include:

• Agents must not take actions that go beyond what the shopper intends [1].
• Agents are prohibited from changing a customer’s payment method [1].
• Agents cannot access a customer’s payment information [2].
• Agents are restricted to accessing only the information necessary to complete a specific task [1, 2].

To protect privacy, the Agent Gateway is designed to prevent agents from accessing a user’s full shopping history or personal information [1]. For example, Walmart stated it can help an agent find a customer’s usual items, like a specific brand of milk or sourdough bread, without sharing the customer’s broader purchase history with the agent [1]. Regarding errors, Walmart stated that its standard returns process applies even if an agent does not act as the customer intended [2].