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Walmart launches Agent Gateway, an MCP server for AI shopping agents

· by Pondero Newsdesk

The short version

Walmart opened an MCP server called Agent Gateway so approved AI agents can search its inventory and buy on a shopper's behalf, a reversal of the lockout approach Amazon took toward AI agents last month.

Walmart launches Agent Gateway, an MCP server for AI shopping agents

Walmart started letting AI shopping agents search its inventory and complete purchases on a customer's behalf this week, the opposite of the lockout approach its biggest competitor took toward agents last month.

What

Walmart launched Agent Gateway on Wednesday, an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets approved AI agents connect to Walmart's catalog and buy items without directly accessing a shopper's personal data or purchase history, per TechCrunch. MCP, the connector standard originally built by Anthropic, lets an agent reach a retailer's tools and data without a custom integration for every site it shops. Walmart president and CEO John Furner said at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco that the company is preparing for "a world where AI agents become mainstream," according to the report. Agent support covers both Walmart and Sam's Club, works for any Walmart account holder, and does not require a Walmart+ membership.

A companion feature called Agent Profiles rolls out next month. It lets a customer authorize each AI agent with its own profile, view that agent's purchases separately from their own, require approval on every transaction or set a spending limit instead, and delete an agent's access at any time, per TechCrunch's reporting. The retailer compared the setup to adding an authorized user to a credit card. The company's standard return policy applies even when an agent buys the wrong item, and agents that act outside the shopper's intent or try to reach payment details get blocked from the site.

Two of the largest US retailers are splitting on agent access

Amazon blocked Meta's AI agent from buying on its site last month, part of a wider pattern of e-commerce and travel sites shutting agents out entirely. Walmart's bet runs the other way: give agents a sanctioned, rules-bound path in rather than fight every one at the door. The retailer already integrates with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta's Muse, so Agent Gateway extends a partnership strategy rather than starting one from scratch. For teams building a shopping agent today, this is a working integration target where Amazon's storefront currently is not, and the spending-limit and authorized-return terms give a developer something concrete to build consent flows against instead of guessing at a retailer's tolerance.

What to watch next

Watch whether Amazon's blocking stance holds once Walmart's Agent Profiles ships next month and agentic purchases start showing up in Walmart's own sales data, and whether Target, Costco, or other large retailers follow Walmart's MCP route rather than building a proprietary agent API.

Sources