Walmart Launches Agent Gateway for AI Shopping Agents — SkimNews
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- Walmart announced Agent Gateway on Wednesday; the new MCP server uses a protocol Anthropic originally created and lets approved agents search online inventory and make purchases across Walmart and Sam’s Club.
- Agent Gateway is intended to help customers shop for familiar brands or items without giving an agent their personal information or purchase history directly.
- Agent Profiles will roll out next month, separating agent purchases from customer purchases and allowing either approval for every transaction or a shopper-set spending limit; agent access requires a Walmart account, not Walmart+.
- Walmart says agents cannot access payment information, obtain more than task-specific data or act beyond shopper intent; violators will be blocked, while Walmart’s returns process applies when an agent does not act as intended.
- Muse is the agent Walmart had already partnered with, while Walmart also offers integrations with ChatGPT, Gemini and other popular AI apps.
- Amazon began blocking AI agents from making purchases for online shoppers, while travel and booking sites have locked the agents out of their websites completely.
Why it matters: For Walmart account holders, the practical change is control: agents can shop without accessing payment information, while Agent Profiles next month add purchase separation, approval rules and spending caps. Unlike Amazon’s block and travel sites’ full lockouts, Walmart keeps a controlled agent channel—and says returns still apply when an agent errs.
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