Wal-Mart announced on Wednesday the launch of its own Agent Gateway for managing transactions, and provided a series of new features for customers using AI agents, officially embracing agentic commerce. Not long ago, Wal-Mart's main competitor, Amazon, began to prevent AI agents from placing orders on behalf of online shoppers.
Compared to other online companies, Walmart has been more proactive in adopting AI technology. This is not only different from Amazon but also distinct from some travel and booking websites; the latter, facing an increasing number of consumers using AI proxies, choose to block them directly from their websites. In contrast, Walmart has previously announced a Muse partnership with a leading Meta in this field and offers integration with popular ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI applications.
Wal-Mart President and CEO John Furner stated on Wednesday at the Masters of Scale Summit held in San Francisco that the company is now further expanding these efforts by incorporating more technologies to prepare for the future when AI shopping becomes the mainstream. This technology will support both Wal-Mart and its discount warehouse membership stores Sam's Club shopping experience.
First is Walmart's Agent Gateway, which is a new MCP server designed to help approved agents connect to Walmart through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP was initially created by Anthropic and allows AI agents to connect to external data sources, tools, and other workflows. Here, it enables AI agents to search within Walmart's online inventory and complete purchases on behalf of users.
In addition, Walmart stated that Agent Gateway can also help customers purchase their favorite brands or products without having to provide personal information or purchase history directly to agents.
The company has also developed new technologies to distinguish between purchases initiated by agents and those made directly by customers, giving shoppers more control over what agents can and cannot do.
With the launch of Agent Profiles next month, customers will be able to assign a dedicated profile to each AI agent used in their account, allowing them to view the purchase records of those agents separately from their own. In addition, customers will also have control over how purchases are approved: they can either require approval for each transaction or authorize transactions to be completed automatically within a consumption limit they set themselves.
Wal-Mart stated that these control methods are similar to adding an authorized user to a credit card: transactions made by that user will be identified, and you can also limit their spending amount.
The company states that a Agent Profiles will be created the first time you use a particular proxy to make a purchase through Walmart Agent Gateway. Upon initiation of use, you need to authorize it and link this Agent Profile to your Walmart account, then set control options or consumption limits. You can also delete a Agent Profile at any time. Anyone with a Walmart account can utilize proxy support without requiring a Walmart plus membership.
In addition to these technologies, Walmart has also introduced specific "terms" for AI agents, clarifying how they must operate and what rights they have when conducting transactions on the website. It is worth noting that Walmart states that its return policy also applies in this case, including when agents do not perform as expected. For consumers who are concerned about becoming early testers of agentic and commerce, this is a more favorable condition, as they do not have to worry about receiving products they do not want due to abnormal agent behavior.
Wal-Mart also stated that agents cannot perform operations that exceed the intentions of shoppers, nor can they access customers' payment information; they are only allowed to access the information necessary to complete specific tasks. Agents who do not comply with these terms will be prevented from accessing the Wal-Mart website.
