The next hurdle for AI agents: getting websites to let them in

Personal AI agents that act on users' behalf are running into blocks on retail and travel websites, leaving consumers caught between the agent and the company they are trying to transact with. Amazon recently began blocking Meta's Muse AI agent from browsing or making purchases on its retail site.

The problem extends beyond Amazon and Muse. Meta's Muse, Instinct, ChatGPT's Dots and others are named as agents in this wave. User complaints on social media indicate agents have encountered similar blocks elsewhere. Some are intentional, while others stem from traditional anti-bot measures designed to stop spam and malicious activity. The end user often cannot tell whether a block is accidental.

Walmart was reported to have had trouble with Muse in its own tests. A Walmart spokesperson told TechCrunch its blocks were not intentional; Walmart partnered with Muse, as announced at Meta's Connect developer conference in September. The issue appears tied to a website button visitors must click to verify they are human; if that check is interrupted, the agent is removed.

Delta said it is taking steps to protect customers from unauthorized automated activity and has no partnership or integration enabling a third-party AI agent to shop for or book Delta flights on its platforms, according to General Manager of Global Communications Heena Chavda. United pointed to its Terms of Use, which prohibit use of robots or automatic devices to monitor or copy the site without prior written permission, and did not answer a follow-up on blocking specific agents like Muse. Yelp said it does not permit non-human traffic unless an agent pays through its data licensing program. eBay said its policies restrict unauthorized agents and actions such as automated scraping and model training, not all third-party shopping agents. Adidas, Zillow and Pizza Hut did not respond or declined to comment.

Meta, Walmart, Stripe, Sierra, Genesys, Rocket, NiCE and Decagon have begun working on an open standard to govern how AI agents communicate with businesses, focused on agent-to-agent communication for online commerce, Meta said in a blog post. Meta said turning away a personal agent means turning away the customer behind it and that it would rather work with businesses on their concerns. Cloudflare, asked about blocking of Muse and others, said it had no specific data to share and pointed to its Radar data hub; it runs a marketplace where AI bots pay for data access and recently began testing a browser built for AI agents. Complaints have referenced Yelp, eBay, Zillow, Pizza Hut, Adidas and various airlines, with some saying eBay suspended their accounts over agentic AI use and one saying Google kicked out Instinct while it cleaned a Gmail inbox.