Walmart Opens Its Store to AI Shopping Agents via MCP

· Cortex Solutions

Illustration of a glowing AI agent orb beside supermarket shelves and a cart, linked to products and a phone approval

On October 21, 2026, Walmart unveiled Agent Gateway, an MCP server that lets approved AI agents shop for customers, with per-agent profiles and spending limits.

On Wednesday, October 21, 2026, Walmart CEO John Furner unveiled a new way for AI agents to shop on behalf of customers. According to a report by Paul Drecksler on Shopifreaks (October 22) and a report by Ana Maria Constantin on The Next Web (October 23), both citing TechCrunch, the company announced three things together: a gateway for agents called Agent Gateway, Agent Profiles inside the customer account, and terms of use that every agent must follow. The Next Web says, citing TechCrunch, that Furner presented the plans at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco.

What is Walmart Agent Gateway?

Agent Gateway is a server built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open standard first created by Anthropic to connect AI agents to outside tools and data. Through it, approved AI agents can search Walmart and Sam's Club inventory and place orders for shoppers. The Next Web explains that agents today shop through a web browser, following steps designed for people, which Walmart described as slow and error-prone. The gateway gives them a direct, structured channel instead.

According to the two reports, the gateway starts as a beta for companies and developers. The Next Web adds that it can help an agent find a customer's usual items, such as a favorite brand of milk, without sharing the customer's wider shopping history.

Agent Profiles and spending limits

The second part is Agent Profiles, due within the next month. Each agent gets its own profile inside the customer's account, with its own spending limit and purchase history, so the agent's orders are kept separate from the customer's own. According to The Next Web:

  • The customer can approve every purchase, or let the agent buy within a limit they set, such as 50, 100 or 200 dollars.
  • The profile is created the first time the customer uses an agent through the gateway, and is linked by signing in to the Walmart account.
  • The customer can delete the profile at any time.
  • A Walmart+ membership is not required, per TechCrunch.

Walmart summed up the idea this way: “Think about it like adding someone as a cardholder on your credit card.”

Strict rules for agents

Walmart's terms set clear limits, as reported by both sources:

  • Agent purchases require customer approval by default, and Walmart may ask for extra approvals even within the spending limit.
  • Agents get no card details and cannot add or change payment methods.
  • An agent may use only the information the task needs and must not go beyond what the shopper asked for.
  • Walmart's normal returns process applies, including when an agent does not act as intended.
  • Agents that break the terms will be blocked from the site.

On pricing, The Next Web reports that Walmart said prices will not change for agents, summing it up as “We price products, not people.”

Two opposite approaches

The move stands in contrast to Amazon. Both sources note that Amazon began blocking AI agents in September, including Meta's Muse. The Next Web, citing Axios, says Amazon stated it had not authorized Muse to access customer accounts, scrape data or process transactions. Walmart, meanwhile, already sells through Muse, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI apps, and has now chosen to open an official, controlled door for agents rather than shut them out. The Next Web also notes that Schwab and JPMorgan have blocked AI agents from moving their customers' money, which shows that the question of letting agents act on behalf of people is still being settled sector by sector.

What does this mean for Saudi businesses?

The lesson is not limited to American retail. If AI agents become a real channel for buying, the stores that benefit will be the ones whose systems agents can read and act on directly, not only websites designed for human eyes. For Saudi retailers, restaurants and online stores, a few practical steps stand out:

  • Organized, up-to-date product data: accurate names, prices, stock and options, in a single system rather than scattered spreadsheets.
  • A clear technical interface (an API, or an MCP server) that exposes only what is needed, the way Walmart separated product search from personal data.
  • Clear permissions and approvals: who approves the order, what the limit is, and what happens on a return or a mistake.
  • A record of every action an agent takes, to make review and accountability easy.

Cortex Solutions helps Saudi companies build these foundations, from connecting systems and data to building AI agents and automation with clear human approvals. Learn more at https://cortex.sa/services/ai-automation

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