[Walmart's AI Agent Rules Take Effect Immediately; Gateway and Profiles to be Launched in Phases] According to Jinse Finance, Walmart's AI agent usage terms took effect on October 25th, but the underlying Agent Profiles and Agent Gateway are not yet fully online. This move stems from an announcement on October 21st (detailed by CEO John Furner at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco): While Amazon blocks AI agent purchases, Walmart is attempting to standardize its integration. The timeline is as follows: the agent terms were released and are effective immediately; Agent Profiles will be launched next month; the Agent Gateway will initially launch in enterprise/developer beta, with no general availability (GA) date yet. Rule boundaries: Agents are prohibited from accessing payment card information and modifying payment methods; purchases require customer approval by default, and customers can set spending limits; standard return procedures apply (including agent errors); violating agents will be blocked. An agent's profile is generated the first time they make a purchase through the gateway, and the customer logs in to their account to authorize and bind it. Walmart has already integrated Muse, ChatGPT, and Gemini conversational shopping. In contrast to Amazon's Muse, which blocks meta tags, Walmart provides a controlled environment (with agents able to control the switch), where agents see prices identical to those seen by humans. Pilot tests show that direct agent checkout conversion rates are approximately one-third of those achieved through click-throughs.