Amazon and Walmart are adopting different strategies to address the emergence of artificial intelligence shopping agents, which automate product research and purchasing for consumers. While Walmart has launched infrastructure to partner with third-party AI tools, Amazon has taken legal and technical steps to block certain agents from its platform. The shift follows projections that these automated assistants could disrupt the multibillion-dollar retail media market by changing how products are discovered and sold.
The two retailers currently dominate the U.S. retail media market, which data firm Emarketer estimates at $74.4 billion. Together, Amazon and Walmart hold an 88% share of this market, where brands pay for prominent placement on retail websites and apps. Industry analysts suggest that if AI agents, rather than humans, begin making purchasing decisions, traditional visual advertising may become less effective.
In September 2026, Amazon banned Muse, an AI agent recently released by Meta, citing unauthorized access and the capturing of customer credentials. Meta declined to comment. Amazon also previously obtained a court order to block Perplexity's shopping agent, Comet, in March 2026, though a federal appeals court overturned that ban in August 2026. Conversely, Walmart rolled out infrastructure on October 21, 2026, that creates specific profiles for AI agents linked to customer accounts, allowing users to set spending limits and approve automated purchases.
The change also impacts the financial stability of the world's largest retailers. At Walmart, advertising and related services accounted for 45% of its quarterly operating income growth as of August 2026. At Amazon, advertising consistently represents about 10% of total net sales, though the company reported its slowest ad revenue growth in nearly four years—11% year-over-year—in the third quarter of 2026. If AI agents bypass traditional ads, these companies may face a significant loss in high-margin revenue, potentially leading them to seek multiyear contracts with advertisers or introduce "bidding systems" where retailers set price floors for AI bots.
In the near term, both companies are attempting to integrate advertising directly into their own AI tools, such as Walmart’s Sparky chatbot and Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Alexa for Shopping. Consumers will likely notice a change in how they receive product recommendations, with discovery relying more on data-matching than emotional branding. The next major developments will depend on the ongoing legal proceedings in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding Amazon’s ability to block third-party tools, as well as the adoption rates of Walmart’s new agent-friendly infrastructure.