The next hurdle for AI agents: getting websites to let them in
Amazon and other sites are blocking consumer AI agents from shopping, spurring a new commerce protocol.
Personal AI agents such as Meta's Muse, Instinct, and ChatGPT's Dots are being blocked when they try to browse or buy on users' behalf. Amazon has intentionally blocked Muse, while Walmart says checkout failures come from human-verification checks despite a Muse partnership. Meta, Walmart, Stripe, and others are drafting an open agent-to-agent commerce standard to separate authorized agents from malicious bots. Airlines, Yelp, eBay, and other brands also restrict unauthorized automated access.