Walmart sets November launch for Agent Profiles

Walmart's Oct. 21 announcement puts the retailer's rules in place before the first agent order rather than after a dispute. By giving each agent its own identity inside a customer's account and a fixed spending ceiling, Walmart is treating an AI agent much like an authorized cardholder, and it says its existing returns process still applies when an agent does something the customer did not ask for. The Agent Gateway adds a second layer: approved agents reach the catalog through a direct connection, so card details stay with the retailer.

The approach contrasts with Amazon, which blocked Meta's Muse agent less than two weeks after launch, saying Meta never secured permission; Amazon also raised concerns about how the agent identified itself. Home Depot is taking a third path, saying it will admit agents that identify themselves and the customer they act for, and it is in talks with Meta about how Muse should do that. Meta and Sierra announced the Personal Agent Protocol on Oct. 6 to standardize that introduction, with Walmart, Shopify and Stripe among the companies developing it; Sierra's Oct. 9 draft does not yet handle payments.

The commercial stakes are already visible in merchant expectations. In a PYMNTS Intelligence survey of 60 senior eCommerce decision-makers at U.S. merchants with $50 million to $1 billion in revenue, 80% said they expect to pay a fee or commission on completed agent sales, while fewer than three in 10 would offer their full catalog to agents on the same terms as their own site. A separate report found only 15% of merchants have structured product data ready for agents to read. Liability remains unresolved beyond Walmart's returns process and American Express's protection for registered-agent errors, leaving open who bears the cost when an agent reaches beyond a purchase.