Walmart will permit customers to link AI agents to its website to conduct shopping tasks starting next month. The company will deploy an Agent Gateway to connect these tools through the Model Context Protocol.
Users can shop via these agents on Sam’s Club as well. New Agent Profiles will allow shoppers to review and approve purchases made by the software while keeping them separate from personal shopping history.
A default requirement will mandate approval for every purchase, though customers can set a specific budget of up to 100 dollars for the agent. Walmart stated that agents must not take actions beyond what the shopper intends and cannot modify a customer's payment method.
The retailer will block any agents that fail to comply with its terms and will restrict their access to only the information necessary to complete a task. Customers retain the ability to deactivate the agent at any time.
Walmart said, "For example, if a customer tends to buy sourdough bread or a particular brand of milk, Walmart will help the agent find those usual items for the customer without sharing the customer’s broader shopping history with the agent." Amazon previously blocked a shopping agent from Perplexity.
