Walmart announced three new tools designed to give customers control over AI agent shopping across Walmart and Sam's Club (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). Agent Profiles will let shoppers authorize AI agents, set spending limits (such as $50, $100, or $200), and track which purchases were made by agents versus themselves (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). The Agent Gateway, built on Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, will give AI systems a faster, more direct connection to Walmart's shopping services while limiting agent access to sensitive customer information (Digital Commerce 360 - AI).
The initiative addresses significant consumer hesitation about AI-driven shopping. A survey of 1,000 U.S. adults found that only 11% had used AI to complete a transaction, while 70% wanted the ability to review or override an AI purchasing decision before checkout (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). Walmart's safeguards—including default approval requirements, spending limits, and blocking agents that violate terms—are designed to build trust and make the platform "the most trusted" agentic shopping experience. For commerce practitioners, this signals that governance and transparency are becoming table stakes in agentic commerce, and that retailers are investing heavily to overcome adoption barriers.
The rollout also opens opportunities for marketplace sellers. Agentic commerce is already shifting product discovery; vitamin and protein supplements were the top two product types purchased through ChatGPT on Walmart (Digital Commerce 360 - AI). Walmart is working with sellers to improve listing quality and catalog accuracy so that AI systems can better understand and recommend their products, raising the bar for competitive product information and availability.