TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- Walmart is opening its platform to third-party AI agents. Its new Agent Gateway will connect external assistants to Walmart and Sam’s Club shopping systems, beginning with a beta for companies and developers.
- Shoppers will control agent purchases. Agent Profiles, launching in November, will let customers set spending limits, require purchase approvals, review agent orders separately and revoke access.
- Walmart and Amazon are taking different approaches. Walmart is welcoming outside shopping agents, while Amazon has restricted their access amid concerns about security, privacy and data scraping.
Walmart Inc. introduced a suite of new tools on Wednesday to welcome third-party artificial intelligence (AI) agents into its digital storefront, highlighting a growing divide over the future of AI in retail. The decision directly contrasts with rival Amazon.com Inc., which aggressively blocks external AI tools from accessing its ecosystem.
Speaking at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco, Walmart CEO John Furner signaled that the company is preparing for a future where consumers routinely rely on autonomous software to hunt for deals and execute purchases.
Highlighting the initiative is Walmart Agent Gateway, a server infrastructure built on Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP). Open to any shopper with a basic Walmart account, the gateway acts as a bridge between external virtual assistants — including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Muse — and the backend fulfillment systems for Walmart and Sam’s Club.
To manage security, Walmart plans to launch Agent Profiles in November.
Functioning similarly to adding an authorized user to a credit card, these profiles allow consumers to connect specific AI agents directly to their Walmart accounts. Shoppers can impose hard spending limits, track agent activity separately from primary orders, require manual signoffs for transactions, or revoke access at any time. Crucially, external agents will not have access to underlying payment card data or sensitive order histories.
Walmart’s open-door strategy sharply diverges from Amazon’s recent efforts to build a walled garden around its marketplace.
Amazon recently blocked Meta’s Muse assistant from browsing or purchasing items on its site within two weeks of the tool’s launch, citing user security, privacy, and data scraping concerns.
Retail analysts note that Amazon may also be seeking to protect its lucrative digital advertising business and drive usage toward its proprietary assistant, Alexa for Shopping.
By contrast, Walmart appears positioned to capitalize on automated shopping routines.
Industry experts point out that autonomous agents programmed to find the lowest cost naturally align with Walmart’s “everyday low prices.” Furthermore, consumer research suggests shoppers are currently more comfortable delegating utilitarian purchases such as household goods and groceries, where Walmart dominates, to AI.
“Not a big surprise here, since Walmart is trying to compete directly with Amazon, and is taking any steps it can do one-up them,” tech analyst Jack Gold said. “Wal-Mart is also trying to appeal to higher end customers and letting them use agents is one way of doing so, since they tend to be more internet heavy users. Finally, Walmart wants to eventually create its own agents for its customer base, so this is a preliminary step towards that vision.”
The announcement comes amid broader discussions regarding algorithmic pricing in retail.
Groundwork Collaborative CEO Lindsay Owens recently accused Walmart of using dynamic AI software to adjust prices based on individual user behavior. Walmart strongly refuted the claim on Wednesday, clarifying that prices displayed to AI agents match those shown to human shoppers on Walmart.com.
While automated commerce remains an emerging segment — with a recent report from Coveo indicating only 16% of shoppers currently trust AI assistants to complete transactions — Walmart is positioning its infrastructure for an inevitable shift in consumer behavior.
