Key points
- Walmart launched Agent Gateway, an MCP server that lets approved AI agents search its inventory and buy for shoppers, including at Sam's Club.
- Agent Profiles roll out next month: shoppers authorize each agent separately, review its purchases apart from their own, and can delete the profile anytime.
- Approval is required by default; shoppers can instead set a spending limit, such as $100, for an agent to buy within.
- Agents that break Walmart's terms will be blocked; the returns process applies even when an agent does not act as intended.
Why it matters for marketers: Walmart is setting rules for agent-driven buying while Amazon blocks it, so retailers and brands must plan for sales that agents, not shoppers, browse and choose.
Walmart announced a set of tools for agentic shopping, led by Agent Gateway, a new server built on the Model Context Protocol. The gateway lets approved AI agents search Walmart's online inventory and complete purchases for a shopper. The same support extends to Sam's Club. Walmart CEO John Furner discussed the move at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco.
Control sits with the shopper. Agent Profiles, due next month, create a dedicated profile for each agent a customer uses. Purchases show up separately from the customer's own, approval is required by default, and shoppers can choose a spending cap instead. Walmart compared this to adding an authorized user to a credit card. Support is available to any Walmart account holder, with no Walmart+ membership needed.
Walmart also published terms for agents. They cannot act beyond what the shopper intends, cannot change a payment method, and may only see the information a task requires. Walmart says it will keep an agent from seeing a shopper's broader purchase history while still helping it find usual items. Noncompliant agents will be blocked, and the returns process still applies if an agent misfires.
For marketers, the contrast with Amazon matters. Amazon has blocked agents such as Perplexity's shopping agent and Meta's Muse assistant, while Walmart already works with Muse and offers integrations with apps like ChatGPT and Gemini. If agents begin choosing products on shoppers' behalf, product data, availability and pricing may count for more than traditional on-site persuasion.
Watch how Agent Profiles perform after launch next month, how many agents Walmart approves, and whether other retailers follow its permission model or keep their doors closed.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.
