AI companies want their agents to roam the web on your behalf. A growing number of websites would rather they didn’t.
Users of Meta’s Muse, xAI’s Grok, OpenAI’s Dots and Instinct’s agent have reported that their assistants can’t complete tasks on some major websites. Some restrictions are explicit: Yelp told TechCrunch it permits AI agents only through its paid data-licensing program, while Delta Air Lines is preventing agents from booking tickets for users. JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab confirmed they block agents from accessing accounts, citing security concerns.
Other roadblocks are less clear. Users say services that previously worked with agents, including Cars.com and Amtrak, are no longer accessible. That suggests more sites may be blocking automated access, though the reports don’t establish exactly what is causing each failure. Even without a formal ban, agents can run into anti-bot systems. The internet has spent years trying to distinguish helpful visitors from unwanted automation; now the helpful visitors arrive with venture capital and a task list.
Amazon is the most conspicuous battleground. It has challenged AI shopping agents, including Perplexity’s, and says Meta’s Muse violates its site policies. Users have also reported problems with Grok, Instinct’s agent and OpenAI’s Dots on Amazon. Elon Musk responded to the latest friction by suggesting he might start an Amazon competitor—a suitably modest reaction to a website declining to cooperate.
The dispute is about more than whether a bot can click “buy.” Amazon has argued that third-party services purchasing items for customers should operate openly and respect a service provider’s decision not to participate. Perplexity, meanwhile, has argued that its agent acts as an extension of the user, and said Amazon’s opposition is tied to keeping human shoppers in front of its ads. That is Perplexity’s claim, not an established finding about Amazon’s motives.
The legal fight has shifted, too. A judge ordered Perplexity to stop its agents from shopping on Amazon; an appeals court overturned that ruling in August. Amazon has since filed an amended complaint. The case leaves unresolved a basic question for agent makers: does a user’s permission to delegate a task also give an agent the right to access a company’s website?
For AI companies, these limits cut directly into the grand promise. EquiStamp CEO Chris Canal told The Verge that restrictions mean agents can do fewer useful things, undermining claims that they can handle almost anything a person does online. If the agent can compose a shopping plan but can’t reach the shop, the demonstration has wandered into the familiar territory between a polished pitch and a working product.
Meta says businesses that turn away a personal agent are also turning away its customer, and says it would rather work with companies on their concerns. It has partnered with retailers including Walmart, Gap, Sephora and Best Buy, while Shopify has opened its network of storefronts to agents. That offers a practical workaround, though it also means agents may work best where businesses have agreed to let them in.
OpenAI and Google had not immediately responded to The Verge’s requests for comment. For now, AI agents can shop where invited—and bounce off the doors of businesses that aren’t. The future of online assistance, it turns out, still depends on website owners saying yes.
Sources: Glitch Please! and The Verge — https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1013195/ai-agents-blocked-web — Reporting on website blocks and restrictions affecting AI agents, company responses, and the Amazon-Perplexity legal dispute.
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