Walmart will let AI shop for you, with spending limits you set

Walmart says it will let customers give an AI agent permission to shop for them, with a spending limit the customer sets. The company announced the plan on Wednesday, Oct. 21. An AI agent is software that takes actions for you, not just answers questions. The plan covers Walmart and Sam's Club.

What changed

Walmart announced three pieces: Agent Profiles, the Walmart Agent Gateway and terms that govern how agents operate. Agent Profiles are scheduled to launch within the next month. Each authorized agent gets its own profile inside your account. That keeps purchases made by agents separate from the ones you make yourself.

The limits you control

• Require approval for every purchase, or let the agent spend within a limit such as $50, $100 or $200.
• Delete an agent's profile at any time.
• Agents do not get your card details and cannot add or change payment methods.
• Approval is required by default, and Walmart may ask for more approval even inside the limit.

Walmart compares the setup to adding an authorized cardholder. Permission to spend comes with limits and a record of what was done.

Prices, returns and the gateway

Agents will see the same prices as people shopping on Walmart.com. Offers and fees will be shown before a purchase. Walmart also said its returns process will apply if an agent does not act as it was supposed to. The Agent Gateway is a dedicated connection for agents, so they do not have to use web pages built for people. It starts as a beta for companies and developers. It is also meant to help agents find your usual products without seeing your wider purchase history.

Amazon's move the same day

Amazon announced a business-side update. PwC is using Amazon Quick, an AWS product that combines an AI assistant, research, analytics and automation. At an unnamed U.S. financial services organization, PwC built a tool that reviews thousands of documents and survey responses to help prioritize technology spending. Amazon says that cut the assessment from weeks or months to days.

At a large technology company's sales team, sellers spent more than 60% of their day on administrative work across at least 16 systems, Amazon said. PwC is using Quick to reduce that. The announcement did not say how much time was saved.

What to do

If you try an AI shopper, start with a low limit and keep approval on until you trust how it behaves. The next test for this technology is simple: whether software can reliably finish tasks people are willing to hand over.