Walmart is embracing Agent Commerce by launching its own Agent Gateway to manage transactions and other new features for customers using AI agents, the retailer announced Wednesday. The move comes shortly after Amazon, Walmart’s biggest competitor, began blocking AI agents from making purchases on behalf of online shoppers.
The company’s use of AI technology differentiates it from other online businesses, including Amazon as well as various travel and booking sites. These sites have responded to the increased consumer adoption of AI agents by banning them from their websites entirely. Meanwhile, Walmart has already announced a partnership with Metas Muse, a leading agent in this space, offering integration with popular AI apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
Speaking at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, Walmart President and CEO John Farner said the company is expanding these efforts with more technology to prepare for a world dominated by AI agents. The technology supports agent shopping from both Walmart and Sam’s Club, the company’s discount warehouse.
It starts with Walmart’s new MCP server, Walmart’s Agent Gateway. It is designed to allow authorized agents to connect to Walmart via Model Context Protocol (MCP). This protocol was originally created by Anthropic and allows AI agents to connect to external data sources, tools, and other workflows. In this case, an AI agent will be able to search Walmart’s online inventory and make purchases on behalf of the agent’s users.
Additionally, the retailer says Agent Gateway will allow customers to shop for regular brands and products without having to share personal information or purchase history directly with an agent.
The company has also developed new technology that differentiates between agent purchases and purchases initiated directly by the customer, giving shoppers more control over what agents can and cannot do.
With Agent Profiles rolling out next month, customers will be able to authenticate each AI agent they use with a dedicated profile within their account, allowing them to see the agent’s purchases separately from their own. Additionally, customers can control how their purchases are approved by requiring approval on a transaction-by-transaction basis or by approving transactions within certain spending limits that you set.
According to the retailer, these controls are similar to adding someone as an authorized user on a credit card, where their transactions are identified and limits can be placed on their spending.
An agent profile is created the first time you use a particular agent to shop through Walmart Agent Gateway, the company said. First, authenticate and link your agent profile to your Walmart account and set controls or spending limits. You can delete your agent profile at any time. Agent support is available to anyone with a Walmart account. No Walmart+ membership required.
In addition to these technologies, Walmart has introduced special “terms and conditions” for its AI agents, specifying how they must operate and what rights they may trade on the site. Notably, Walmart says its return process applies even if the agent did not act as intended. This is a customer-friendly term that could sway consumers who were worried about becoming early testers of agent commerce, without fear of ending up getting an item they didn’t want because of agent misconduct.
Walmart also said agents cannot take any action beyond a shopper’s intentions, cannot access customer payment information, and can only access information necessary for a given job. Agents who do not comply with the terms will be blocked from accessing Walmart’s site.
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