Amazon and Walmart have drawn opposite lines in the emerging fight over AI agents that can search, compare and buy products for consumers.

Amazon moved first to shut the gate. Less than two weeks after Meta launched its Muse shopping assistant, Amazon blocked it from browsing and purchasing on the platform, saying it had not authorized the tool to access customer accounts, scrape data or process transactions. The company cited customer security and user-experience concerns—a defense of its tightly controlled marketplace. Retail analyst Neil Saunders said Amazon is trying to preserve “its closed ecosystem,” while betting its own AI tools will satisfy shoppers who want automated help.¹

Then, on Wednesday, Walmart announced the counterstrategy: an Agent Gateway designed to connect approved outside agents through the Model Context Protocol. Walmart President and CEO John Furner said the system is meant to let customers use “the agents they choose” at Walmart and Sam’s Club, while retaining controls over what those agents can do.²

The retailer’s next step arrives next month with Agent Profiles. Each agent will receive a separate profile linked to a shopper’s Walmart account, making its purchases visible apart from the customer’s own orders. By default, purchases require approval; shoppers can instead set a spending ceiling, such as $100, or revoke access entirely. Walmart says agents cannot change payment methods, act beyond a shopper’s intent or access more information than needed for a task.³

That pitch is deliberately consumer-facing: Walmart says its gateway can steer an agent toward familiar groceries without handing over a customer’s wider shopping history. It also says normal returns rules apply if an agent goes wrong.³

The dispute is not only about technology. Walmart’s openness could make it attractive to deal-seeking agents, but critics have already challenged the retailer’s use of AI in pricing; Walmart rejects the allegation, saying, “We price products, not people.”¹ For now, shoppers remain cautious: only 16% say they are comfortable letting an AI assistant find and buy products for them, according to Coveo data cited by Axios.¹