Walmart Opens Its Store to Outside AI Shopping Agents

Walmart unveiled tools that will allow outside AI agents to shop for customers, according to an AFP report in The Straits Times. The retailer plans to introduce Agent Profiles within the next month, giving each assistant a separate profile within a customer's Walmart account.

Customers can require approval for every purchase or let an agent buy on its own up to a spending limit they set, such as $50, $100 or $200. Purchases made by an agent will appear separately, and customers can delete its profile at any time.

Walmart's approach differs from Amazon, which blocks outside shopping agents while offering its own shopping tools. Anthropic also released a preview of Claude Duet, an agent that works across connected apps and can complete online purchases after receiving user approval.