Walmart is taking a distinctly different approach to artificial intelligence in retail than its chief competitors, announcing new infrastructure designed to help third-party AI agents shop on behalf of consumers. The retail giant revealed Wednesday that it is rolling out two new systems: agent profiles and an agent gateway.
The newly introduced agent profiles are designed to link all transactions directly to the specific bot that performed them. This setup allows Walmart customers to manage authorizations and set spending limits in a manner similar to how they would oversee an additional user on a credit card account.
Simultaneously, the agent gateways eliminate the need for automated bots to navigate standard websites designed for human users. Instead, Walmart is granting direct access through a model text protocol, a method the company says will enable AI agents to operate much more quickly and accurately.
According to the retailer, the gateway also serves a protective function regarding consumer data. It restricts shared information to only what is strictly necessary to complete a given transaction. For example, the system can share a relevant pattern or preference—such as a customer’s preferred brand of laundry detergent—without exposing their entire purchase history to the AI agent.
Alongside these technical tools, Walmart outlined specific terms and conditions governing how AI agents are expected to operate when conducting transactions on its platform. Under these guidelines, the company stated that it will honor its standard returns policy and ensure that bots always encounter the exact same pricing that a human customer would see on Walmart.com.
“As customers begin using agents to help them shop, we’re building connections, permissions and options that complement those tools and support how customers want to use them,” the company said in an official statement.
This welcoming stance toward automated shopping assistants contrasts sharply with the strategy adopted by Amazon. In recent months, Amazon blocked Meta’s AI agent Muse from its website, arguing that such bots violate its established conditions of use. Amazon has also pushed back against other third-party agents through various restrictions targeting systems from Google and OpenAI, alongside legal action against Perplexity.
