Walmart announced a set of new technologies to enable approved AI agents to shop and transact on customers’ behalf, unveiling an Agent Gateway and forthcoming Agent Profiles at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday. John Furner, President and CEO of Walmart, said the features will support agent-driven shopping across both Walmart and the company’s discount warehouse, Sam’s Club.
The arrival of these tools contrasts with responses from other online businesses. Some competitors, including Amazon and multiple travel and booking sites, have moved to block AI agents from making purchases on their platforms. Walmart has taken a different approach: it previously announced a partnership with Meta’s Muse and already offers integrations with popular AI apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
How Agent Gateway works
Walmart’s Agent Gateway operates as a new MCP server designed to let approved agents connect to Walmart using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The protocol, originally created by Anthropic, enables AI agents to link to external data sources, tools, and workflows. In Walmart’s implementation, an authorized agent can search the retailer’s online inventory and make purchases for the agent’s user.
Walmart says the Agent Gateway is built to let customers shop for preferred brands or regular items without having to directly share personal information or purchase histories with the agent.
Agent Profiles: separate records and user controls
Starting next month, Walmart will roll out Agent Profiles. Each time a customer first uses a particular agent through the Walmart Agent Gateway, an Agent Profile is created and linked to their Walmart account. Customers can then set controls and spending limits or require approval for every transaction. Purchases made by an agent will be displayed separately from the customer’s own orders.
Walmart likens these controls to adding an authorized user to a credit card account: the authorized user’s transactions are identified and spending can be capped. Agent support is available to anyone with a Walmart account; a Walmart+ membership is not required. Customers can delete an Agent Profile at any time.
Terms, returns and limits on agent actions
Walmart is also publishing special terms for AI agents that define how agents must operate and what rights they have to transact on the site. The retailer notes that its returns process applies even when an agent does not act as intended, which could reassure shoppers who worry about ending up with unwanted items due to an agent error.
The company says agents cannot take actions beyond what the shopper intends, cannot access customers’ payment information, and are restricted to the information necessary for the specific task. Agents that violate the terms will be blocked from accessing Walmart’s site.
Why this matters
Walmart’s announcements show a strategy of accommodating agentic commerce while attempting to preserve consumer control and safety. By combining secure access via MCP, separate agent profiles, and clear agent terms, Walmart aims to enable automated shopping without forcing customers to relinquish oversight or sensitive payment data.
All organizations and technologies are presented as named in the source: Walmart, Sam’s Club, Meta Muse, ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic, Model Context Protocol (MCP), John Furner, Masters of Scale Summit.
