Walmart opens its stores to outside AI shopping agents, with agent profiles that let customers set a spending limit or approve every purchase

Walmart announced on 21 October tools that let customers shop at Walmart and Sam's Club through AI agents. There are three parts: Agent Profiles, the Walmart Agent Gateway, and terms that agents must follow.

Agent Profiles, launching in the next month, give each authorised agent its own profile in the customer's account, so its purchases show separately. Customers can require approval for every purchase or set a spending limit; Walmart gives $50, $100 or $200 as examples. A profile can be deleted at any time. The first time a customer uses an agent through the Gateway, Walmart creates the profile automatically, and the customer links it by signing in.

The Agent Gateway gives agents a faster and more reliable way to shop than working through the website in a browser, and starts as a beta for companies and developers. Agents can reorder a customer's usual items without seeing their wider purchase history. Walmart names Muse, ChatGPT and Gemini among the assistants it already works with.

Under the terms, customers must approve agent purchases by default, agents must not act beyond the shopper's intent, agents receive no payment-card details and cannot change payment methods, and agents that break the terms will be blocked from Walmart's site. Walmart's returns process applies when an agent does not act as intended.

• Confirmed Agent Profiles, launching in the next month, let customers approve every purchase or set a spending limit such as $50, $100 or $200. Walmart
• Confirmed Agents receive no payment-card details, and agents that break Walmart's terms will be blocked. Walmart