AI
Walmart opens an agent gateway while Amazon shuts AI shoppers out
Walmart launched an Agent Gateway, an MCP server that lets approved AI agents search its inventory and buy on a shopper's behalf at Walmart and Sam's Club, alongside Agent Profiles arriving next month that keep an agent's purchases separate from the customer's own. Shoppers can approve every transaction or set a spending cap, agents cannot see payment details, and Walmart published terms that block agents which overstep. Chief executive John Furner framed the move as preparation for mainstream agentic shopping, contrasting it with Amazon, which now blocks AI agents from buying on its site.