Websites block consumer AI agents as agentic traffic rises
Original title: Making the internet better for AI agents might make it worse for everyone else
Meta's Muse was downloaded 5 million times in its first month, and agentic web traffic tripled from August to September.
Personal AI agents from apps such as OpenAI's Dots and Meta's Muse are being blocked by sites that cannot separate them from bots, including Amazon, Yelp, and Pizza Hut. Amazon is appealing a ruling that favored Perplexity, arguing agents undermine ad measurement. Shopify is adding checkout lanes for agents. The piece argues that growing demand could push the web to be redesigned around agents rather than human visitors.
Unconfirmed: Claims that agents will overwhelm customer service are Ethan Mollick's prediction, not measured results.
- Most reported agentic web traffic goes to e-commerce sites.
- Yelp does not allow AI to book restaurant reservations.
- A judge ruled for Perplexity, and Amazon has appealed.
- Shopify is giving agents checkout lanes that skip pages built for humans.
- Organizations
- PerplexityYelp
From the original article
4 min read at technologyreview.com
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Until recently, you could divide internet users into just two categories: bots and people.
By James O'Donnell · technologyreview.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.