Walmart is about to let AI shop for you. Here’s how it works
On 21 October 2026, Walmart announced Agent Profiles: a way for outside AI assistants to shop on Walmart.com for a customer, from searching to checkout. Walmart says it will launch within the next month.
A chatbot answers questions. An agent acts: it searches, compares prices and completes the purchase. Walmart is the first big US retailer to open its store to outside agents in this way.
How Agent Profiles work
- Its own profile. Each AI assistant is added as a separate profile in your Walmart account, so its purchases show apart from yours. Walmart compares it to adding an authorised user to a credit card.
- Your rules. Require approval for every purchase, or let the agent buy on its own up to a limit you set: $50, $100 or $200.
- Your off switch. Delete the profile at any time.
The first agent named is Meta’s Muse, an assistant launched in September and downloaded more than 10 million times, according to Sensor Tower. It is available in the US and Canada.
Not every retailer agrees
Amazon is going the other way. It blocks third-party shopping agents and promotes its own tools, Alexa for Shopping and Buy for Me. Last month it blocked Muse, and in November 2025 it sued Perplexity over its Comet browser agent. Two of the biggest retailers are making opposite bets on who gets to do the shopping.
Walmart’s second try
Walmart has tested this before. It was a launch partner for ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout in 2025, and reported that buying inside the chat converted about three times worse than sending shoppers to its own site. Shoppers wanted one basket, not single-item orders. Walmart then moved to Sparky, its own assistant inside ChatGPT and Gemini, where it says users spend about 35% more per order. Agent Profiles flips the model: instead of Walmart going to the AI, approved agents come to Walmart, with the customer’s rules attached.
What it means if you sell online
If an AI does the shopping, your listing has to make sense to the AI too. An agent compares facts: price, size, specs, delivery date, reviews and returns. A clever headline does little for it.
- Complete specs. Fill every attribute field. Missing data is an easy reason to skip a product.
- Plain, accurate titles. What it is, size, count, material. No keyword stuffing.
- Totals that hold up. Agents compare the final price with delivery, not the sticker price.
- Real reviews. Rating and review count are simple signals for an agent to rank on.
Walmart Marketplace sellers will feel this first. If you want a second look at your listings with AI shoppers in mind, start with a strategy call.
Checked 25 October 2026. Agent Profiles is announced but not live yet; details may change at launch.
Sources: AFP via Jamaica Observer: Walmart welcomes AI shopping agents, Reuters via The Daily Guardian: Walmart launches tools for AI agents, PPC Land: Walmart’s ChatGPT checkout and Sparky
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