Walmart will let AI agents shop on its website starting next month

Walmart is about to let software do your grocery run. Starting next month, shoppers will be able to connect their own AI agent to the retailer’s website and have it buy things on their behalf. The move puts Walmart on the opposite side of the fence from Amazon. Amazon has blocked Perplexity’s shopping agent and Meta’s Muse AI assistant. Walmart is rolling out a welcome mat, with a rulebook attached. How it works The setup is built around human oversight. Customers will be able to approve and review purchases their agent makes, and they can set spending limits on what it is allowed to buy. Walmart has also published terms that any agent must follow to operate on its site. The central principle is simple. “Agents must not take actions beyond what the shopper intends.” The rules also bar agents from changing a customer’s payment method. Why Walmart is going the other way The company introduced its Sparky assistant in June 2025. That same year, it launched a four-super-agent framework designed to bring AI deeper into how people shop with the company. Walmart has also spread Sparky beyond its own properties. The chatbot is embedded within ChatGPT, and an integration with Google Gemini i...