Walmart Opens Its Shelves to External AI Agents, With Guardrails

Walmart will launch "Agent Profiles" within the next month, giving customers dedicated slots inside their accounts for an AI agent to shop on their behalf, per a Wednesday announcement.

Shoppers stay in charge of the wallet. They can require approval for every purchase an agent makes, or they can grant the agent spending authority up to a limit the customer sets.

The retailer is also building an "Agent Gateway," now in beta rollout for companies and developers. The gateway uses the open-standard Model Context Protocol, which lets AI systems connect to external services and data. Its aim is practical: an agent can complete a purchase without the customer sharing personal information or purchase history with that agent.

What else changed in the terms?

Wednesday's announcement included updated terms for AI agents. The terms emphasize customer approval requirements, and they bar agents from receiving customers' payment-card information.

Walmart frames Agent Profiles and Agent Gateway as a way to expand agentic commerce while keeping transparency for shoppers and protecting personal data.

How does Walmart's AI track record look?

The move extends an existing strategy. Walmart was one of the first major retailers to integrate purchasing with OpenAI's ChatGPT, and it joined forces with Google's Gemini earlier this year. It has also continued to tout the success of its Sparky AI assistant since launching the tool in 2025.

The company is developing agentic AI on two tracks: relationships with external AI systems, plus its own in-house AI agent.

How does this differ from Amazon?

The contrast with Amazon is stark. Amazon has sought to stop agents from Perplexity and Meta from shopping through Amazon on behalf of customers. Walmart is taking the opposite door, welcoming external agents under rules it sets.

Who speaks for Walmart?

Keeping customers in control of their AI commerce experiences is key, Walmart U.S. Executive Vice President of E-commerce and Marketing Tracy Poulliot said during the RetailClub AI Festival conference in California last month.

"It's really not just about technology for technology's sake," Poulliot said of Walmart's AI strategy. "It's pointing the technology at a problem that creates meaningful value for the customer."

With Agent Profiles arriving within a month and the Agent Gateway in beta, Walmart has positioned itself as the testing ground for how major retailers let third-party agents transact — and how much control shoppers keep when they do.