Walmart is embracing agentic commerce by launching its own Agent Gateway to manage transactions and new features for customers utilizing AI agents, as announced on Wednesday. This strategic shift comes shortly after Walmart’s primary competitor, Amazon, began blocking AI agents from making purchases on behalf of online shoppers.
This embrace of AI technology distinguishes Walmart from other online businesses, including Amazon and various travel and booking sites that have responded to the growing consumer adoption of AI agents by locking them out entirely. Conversely, Walmart has already announced a partnership with a leading agent in the space, Meta's Muse, and offers integrations with popular AI applications such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
Expanding on these efforts to prepare for a mainstream future where AI agents are ubiquitous, Walmart President and CEO John Furner revealed the technology at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday. The system is designed to facilitate agentic shopping across both Walmart and its discount warehouse, Sam's Club.
The initiative centers on Walmart's Agent Gateway, a new MCP server designed to facilitate connections between approved agents and Walmart using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Originally created by Anthropic, this protocol allows AI agents to interface with external data sources and workflows. In this instance, it enables an AI agent to browse Walmart's online inventory and execute purchases on a user's behalf.
Furthermore, the retailer emphasizes that its Agent Gateway will assist customers in finding their preferred brands or items without requiring the disclosure of personal information or purchase history directly to the agent.
To provide shoppers with greater control, the company has developed new technology to differentiate purchases initiated by AI agents from those made directly by the customer. This ensures users dictate the extent of their agents' capabilities.
Launching next month, Agent Profiles will allow customers to authorize each AI agent they utilize with a dedicated profile within their account. This separation allows users to view agent transactions distinctly from their own history. Additionally, customers will maintain control over approval processes, either by requiring approval for every transaction or by setting predefined spending limits.
The retailer notes that these controls function similarly to adding an authorized user to a credit card, identifying their transactions and capping their spending. Agent Profiles are generated the first time a specific agent is used via the Walmart Agent Gateway. Users can link the profile to their account, configure controls or spending limits, and delete the profile at any time. Agent support is available to all Walmart account holders, though a Walmart+ membership is not required.
Alongside these technologies, Walmart is introducing specific guidelines for AI agents, detailing their operational parameters and transaction rights. Crucially, Walmart states that its standard returns policy applies, even if an agent does not function as intended. This customer-centric policy aims to alleviate concerns regarding early adoption of agentic commerce, ensuring users are not stuck with unwanted products due to misbehavior.
Walmart also stipulates that agents cannot perform unauthorized actions, access sensitive payment information, or retain data beyond what is necessary for the specific task. Agents failing to adhere to these terms will be restricted from accessing the Walmart platform.
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