沃尔玛将开放 AI Agent 代客购物功能

沃尔玛很快将允许 AI Agent 在其网站上代表用户购物。下个月，这家零售巨头将允许用户在网站上使用 AI Agent，并配备了相应系统，方便用户审批和查看采购记录，以及设定支出上限。

沃尔玛对 AI Agent 的拥抱态度与亚马逊形成了鲜明对比，后者此前封禁了 Perplexity 的购物 Agent以及 Meta 的 Muse AI 助手。但沃尔玛正向 AI 购物者敞开大门——前提是它们必须遵守零售商的规则。沃尔玛为 Agent 列出了一系列条款，明确指出“Agent 的行为不得超出消费者的意图”，且不能更改消费者的支付方式。此外，Agent 只能访问完成其任务所必需的信息。沃尔玛表示，将封禁任何不遵守这些条款的 Agent。

Agent 将接入沃尔玛内部全新的“Agent 档案”（Agent Profiles）。在默认情况下，沃尔玛要求所有 AI Agent 发起的购买均需人工批准，但用户也可以设定特定预算额度（例如最高 100 美元）允许其自主采购。用户还可以在 Agent 档案中独立于个人常规订单查看 Agent 的购买记录，并可随时停用 Agent。

该零售商构建了一个目前处于测试阶段的“Agent 网关”（Agent Gateway），它通过 Model Context Protocol（一种允许 AI Agent 接入网络上各类服务的开放标准）来连接 AI Agent。沃尔玛表示，这不仅能让 AI Agent 在购物时避免直接操作浏览器可能遇到的各种阻碍，还能防止它们获取用户的完整购物历史和个人隐私信息。

“例如，如果客户经常购买酸面包或某个特定品牌的牛奶，沃尔玛会协助 Agent 为客户找到这些常规商品，而无需向 Agent 共享客户更广泛的购物历史记录，”沃尔玛表示。该公司还将支持用户在山姆会员店（Sam's Club）使用 AI Agent 进行购物。

Walmart will soon let AI agents shop on its website for you. Next month, the retail giant will allow you to use an AI agent on the site, with systems in place to let you approve and review purchases and set spending limits.

The embrace of AI agents stands in stark contrast to Amazon, which blocked Perplexity’s shopping agent and Meta’s Muse AI assistant. But Walmart is opening its doors to AI shoppers — as long as they follow the retailer’s rules. It has outlined a set of terms for agents, saying that “agents must not take actions beyond what the shopper intends” and cannot change a customer’s payment method. Agents also can only access information needed to complete their task. Walmart says it will block agents that don’t follow these terms.

Agents will connect to new “Agent Profiles” within Walmart. By default, Walmart will require approval for all AI agent purchases, but you can also let it shop within a certain budget, such as up to $100. You’ll also be able to review your agent’s purchases separately from your own in Agent Profiles, as well as turn off the agent at any time.

The retailer has built an “Agent Gateway,” currently available in beta, that connects AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard that allows AI agents to plug into different services on the web. Walmart says this not only enables AI agents to shop without running into hiccups that they might encounter when navigating a browser, but also prevents them from accessing your shopping history and personal information.

“For example, if a customer tends to buy sourdough bread or a particular brand of milk, Walmart will help the agent find those usual items for the customer without sharing the customer’s broader shopping history with the agent,” Walmart says. The company will let users shop with AI agents on Sam’s Club as well.