Walmart to open its site to AI shopping agents next month

Walmart's move opens its website to AI agents at a time when other platforms have taken a different path: Amazon blocked Perplexity's shopping agent and Meta's Muse AI assistant. Walmart is instead admitting agents under a set of terms, including that agents must not take actions beyond what the shopper intends and cannot change a customer's payment method. The retailer says it will block agents that don't follow these rules.

The technical route is an “Agent Gateway” that connects AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for plugging agents into different services on the web. Walmart says this lets agents shop without the hiccups they might hit when navigating a browser, and it prevents them from accessing a shopper's shopping history and personal information. As an example, Walmart says that if a customer tends to buy sourdough bread or a particular brand of milk, it will help the agent find those usual items without sharing the customer's broader shopping history with the agent.

Control sits with the shopper through new “Agent Profiles.” By default, Walmart will require approval for all AI agent purchases, but shoppers can also let an agent shop within a certain budget, such as up to $100, review the agent's purchases separately from their own, and turn the agent off at any time. Walmart will also let users shop with AI agents on Sam's Club.