Walmart has launched its own route for AI agents to shop on its sites, TechCrunch reports. CEO John Furner announced it on Wednesday at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. The article says it follows Amazon's decision to block AI agents from buying on behalf of shoppers, and that various travel and booking sites have also locked agents out.
What Walmart released
The centrepiece is Agent Gateway, a new MCP server. It lets approved agents connect to Walmart over the model context protocol, which Anthropic created to let agents reach external data sources, tools and workflows. Through the gateway an agent can search Walmart's online inventory and make purchases for its user. The same support covers Sam's Club. According to Walmart, the gateway can also help customers shop for their usual brands or items without handing personal information or purchase history directly to the agent.
Walmart had already announced a partnership with Meta's Muse and offers integrations with apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini. Agent support is open to anyone with a Walmart account, and a Walmart+ membership is not required.
Controls for the customer
Agent Profiles, which Walmart says roll out next month, create a dedicated profile for each agent a customer uses. The profile is made the first time an agent shops through the gateway. The customer links it to their account and sets controls, and can delete it at any time. Purchases made by the agent show up separately from the customer's own.
Customers choose how purchases are approved: either every transaction needs their sign-off, or the agent may spend freely up to a limit they set. Walmart compares this to adding an authorized user to a credit card, where transactions are identified and spending can be capped.
Terms for agents
Walmart is also introducing terms that spell out how agents must operate and what rights they have to transact on the site. According to the company:
- its returns process applies even when an agent does not act as intended;
- agents cannot take actions beyond what the shopper intends;
- agents cannot access customers' payment information;
- agents can access only the information needed for the task at hand.
Agents that do not comply will be blocked from the site.
What is not in the source
The report gives no pricing, no list of approved agents beyond those named, and no rollout date for Agent Gateway itself. Only the Agent Profiles timing is stated, as next month.
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