Walmart opens its store to AI agents, with spending limits and no card access: the opposite bet to Amazon

By MarketScreener (with reporting from Reuters) · October 21, 2026.

Walmart on Wednesday unveiled new tools that let artificial intelligence agents search for products and complete purchases on behalf of its customers, Reuters reports. The move contrasts with Amazon, which, according to the same agency, has tried to limit third-party shopping agents' access to its platform.

The centerpiece is "Walmart Agent Gateway," a platform that lets assistants such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google) and Muse (Meta) connect directly to Walmart and Sam's Club systems. In other words, it is a technical entry point that lets an assistant check the catalog and place an order without the user browsing the retailer's website.

The second piece is "agent profiles," which Walmart will launch next month. They let users authorize specific agents and track those agents' purchases separately from their own orders. Users can also set a spending limit or require approval for every transaction, and revoke access at any time. According to the company, agents will not be able to access payment card details and can be blocked if they break its rules. The tools will be available to all account holders, with no Walmart+ subscription required.

**Our take.** What matters is not that an agent can buy things, but how that ability is delegated. Walmart treats the agent as a third party with limited permissions: its own identity, a budget, traceability and a revoke button. The pattern will probably spread, because trust, more than model capability, is the bottleneck for agentic commerce.

There is also a strategic angle. Whoever controls the point where a purchase starts generally controls the margin, the advertising and the data. Amazon, with a huge advertising business inside its store, has reasons not to hand that relationship to someone else's assistant. Walmart is betting the other way: if consumers are going to shop through ChatGPT or Gemini, it is better to be the retailer those agents work with smoothly. It is a bet on distribution, consistent with what we have been seeing. The AI race is moving toward the "plumbing" of integrations and standards, not just toward the smartest model.

Caution is warranted. The announcement describes tools and promised controls. It gives no usage figures or purchase volumes, and nothing on how errors or disputes will be handled when an agent buys the wrong thing. That will be the real test. The piece also leaves questions open: how an agent will decide which product to recommend, and whether retailers will end up paying to appear in its answers.

In the short term, this reshapes e-commerce and puts pressure on intermediaries that live off directing shoppers' attention. In the long term, the promise is a kinder one: handing routine shopping to a reliable assistant, which frees up human time and attention. That future is only worth having if users stay in control, and Walmart's permission design points that way, at least on paper.