Walmart Launches AI Shopping Agent Gateway

Walmart unveiled the Walmart Agent Gateway on Oct 21. It also announced Agent Profiles. The new tools let AI agents shop and buy products for customers. Bots can search for goods, compare prices, and place orders directly. The system links outside bots directly to Walmart and Sam’s Club. Any user with a free Walmart account can use them. No paid Walmart+ membership is needed.

Walmart’s open move stands in sharp contrast to Amazon. Amazon blocks third-party shopping agents. In contrast, Walmart welcomes external AI tools to its store shelves.

Technical Factsheet: Walmart Agent Gateway

The Shift From Chatbots to Autonomous Agents

This move marks a major shift in the AI race that started with ChatGPT in late 2022.

Early generative tools were simple chatbots. They answered questions and wrote text. AI agents do much more. Agents are programs that handle multi-step jobs on their own. They can find items, check stock, pick delivery times, and complete payment without manual user prompts at each step.

Tech giants are investing heavily in these agent workflows:

• Meta Muse: Launched in September for the US and Canada, Meta’s Muse agent already passed 10 million downloads, based on Sensor Tower data.
• Anthropic Claude Duet: Previewed on Oct 21, Claude Duet runs in the background across apps. It can research and buy goods online with user sign-off.
• OpenAI Dots: Rolled out in September, Dots provides always-on agents for personal and work tasks.

How Agent Profiles Work: Authorized Users on Account Balances

Letting autonomous code spend money brings real risks. Prompt bugs or loops could cause unwanted orders.

Walmart solved this with Agent Profiles, rolling out next month. Walmart compares the setup to adding an authorized user to a credit card.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 WALMART AGENT GATEWAY PIPELINE               │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [AI Agent: Meta Muse / Claude Duet / OpenAI Dots / Gemini]  │
│             │                                               │
│             ▼                                               │
│ [Walmart Agent Gateway API]                                 │
│      ├── Product Catalog & Real-time Inventory Checks       │
│      └── Pricing & Delivery Window Verification             │
│             │                                               │
│             ▼                                               │
│ [Agent Profile Policy Engine]                               │
│      ├── Verifies Agent Authentication Key                  │
│      ├── Enforces Spending Caps ($50, $100, $200 tiers)     │
│      └── Requests Manual User Approval (if enabled)         │
│             │                                               │
│             ▼                                               │
│ [Secure Settlement Layer]                                   │
│      ├── Zero Card Data Exposed to the LLM                  │
│      └── Tokenized Charge on Stored Account Profile         │
│             │                                               │
│             ▼                                               │
│ [Segregated Order Dashboard in Walmart Account]             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1. Separate Profiles: Shoppers register each bot as its own profile. Purchases made by the bot show up apart from manual orders.
2. Strict Budget Limits: Users set hard spending caps, such as $50, $100, or $200. The agent cannot spend above its assigned cap.
3. Approval Gates: Shoppers can require approval for every purchase. The bot picks items, and the user approves the cart before checkout.
4. Tokenized Checkout: Bots never see credit card numbers or bank data. All charges use secure tokens saved in Walmart’s vault.
5. Instant Removal: Shoppers can delete any agent profile at any time. Removing a bot cuts off its access right away.

Retail Battle: Walmart’s Open API vs. Amazon’s Walled Garden

Walmart’s strategy highlights a deep divide between the two retail giants.

Amazon takes a hard line against outside AI agents. Amazon wants all automated shopping kept within its own tools, like Alexa for Shopping and Buy for Me. This protects Amazon’s retail ad revenue and user search data.

Amazon’s pushback has led to open disputes:

• In September, Amazon blocked Meta’s Muse from its store. Shoppers received notices that outside agents violate site rules.
• In November 2025, Amazon sued Perplexity. The suit claims Perplexity used its Comet browser agent to make covert buys on Amazon.
• Amazon has also moved to block shopping agents from Google and OpenAI.

Walmart takes the opposite path. Instead of locking doors, Walmart treats top AI agents as direct sales channels.

“The tools instilled confidence in the experimental shopping process of agentic purchases… the momentum and buy-in from top management teams seems to be making this into a real thing.”

David Bellinger, Equity Analyst at Mizuho

What This Means for Developers

For software teams, the Agent Gateway replaces fragile web scraping with official API endpoints. Developers can build agent tools that hook directly into Walmart using standard tool calls:

{
  "agent_id": "agt_claude_duet_412",
  "action": "execute_purchase",
  "parameters": {
    "sku": "WM-9482014-A",
    "quantity": 1,
    "max_price_threshold": 50.00,
    "fulfillment_method": "next_day_delivery"
  },
  "auth_token": "usr_wmt_token_live_839fbc",
  "require_user_confirmation": true
}

The gateway checks limits before running orders. Any request that exceeds preset budgets is blocked on the spot.

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