US retail giant Walmart announced on October 21 the launch of Agent Gateway, an MCP-based server that lets approved AI agents search Walmart and Sam's Club inventory directly and complete purchases on behalf of users. Mainstream agents such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta's Muse are among those being connected.
Alongside the open approach comes control design: next month Walmart will roll out Agent Profiles, giving each AI assistant its own profile inside the user's account. Spending can require approval for every purchase, or an automatic payment cap of $50, $100, or $200, and profiles can be deleted at any time. Users do not need to hand payment details or purchase history directly to the model.
On the same track, Amazon has gone the opposite way, blocking third-party shopping agents such as Perplexity and Muse on security and privacy grounds, while promoting only its own Alexa shopping and Buy for Me features. The split between the two retail giants marks the move of 'agentic shopping' from proof of concept into a fight over platform rules.
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