Walmart opens its store to AI shopping agents while Amazon blocks them
The retailer's new Agent Gateway lets approved agents connect over the Model Context Protocol, with spending limits and purchase approval for customers.
Walmart announced on Wednesday that it will let AI agents shop on its website for customers starting next month. Customers will be able to approve and review purchases and set spending limits. The center of the plan is Walmart's Agent Gateway, a new MCP server that lets approved agents connect to the retailer over the Model Context Protocol, the standard Anthropic originally created for linking AI agents to outside data and tools. The setup will support agent shopping at both Walmart and its warehouse club, Sam's Club. CEO John Furner announced the plan at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. Walmart already has a partnership with Meta's Muse agent and integrations with ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI apps. The approach contrasts with Amazon, which recently began blocking AI agents from making purchases for shoppers, and with travel and booking sites that have locked agents out entirely. The split shows that large retailers are taking different bets on whether automated agents will become a major way consumers shop online, and on how much control platforms should keep over those transactions.