Walmart to Launch AI Agent Profiles, Agent Gateway in Bet on Agentic Commerce

Walmart will debut "Agent Profiles" within the next month, letting customers create dedicated profiles for AI agents that can shop on their behalf, the retailer announced Wednesday. Purchases by agents may require customer approval or operate within a spending limit the shopper sets. The company is also building an "Agent Gateway," now in beta for companies and developers, using the open Model Context Protocol standard to let AI systems shop for users without sharing personal information or purchase history. Updated terms bar agents from receiving customers' payment-card data. Walmart has already integrated purchasing with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, and touts its Sparky AI assistant launched in 2025. The approach contrasts with Amazon, which has sought to block agents from Perplexity and Meta from shopping on its site. "It's really not just about technology for technology's sake," Tracy Poulliot, Walmart U.S. EVP of e-commerce and marketing, said at the RetailClub AI Festival last month.