• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Amazon has restricted its customers from using Muse AI -- Meta’s newest artificial intelligence agent -- while shopping on its ecommerce platform, following denied requests that Meta remove its agent from the retail site.  

Consumers attempting to use Muse AI while shopping on Amazon are now being met with an automated message explaining that the “continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use, to which our customers have agreed.”

Launched earlier this month, Meta’s Muse AI is designed to help users complete everyday tasks including sending emails, booking reservations for flights, shows, and restaurants, following recipes and more. 

To help complete tasks, the agent is trained to connect directly to third-party apps like Gmail, Ticketmaster, and Shopify. 

However, Amazon, which develops and deploys its own AI agents, doesn’t allow outside third-party AI shopping agents to access or make purchases on its retail store, actively blocking from navigating its platform.

Prior to issuing the automated response to Muse users, the retail giant asked Meta to exclude its website from the agent’s reach. 

“We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate,” an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email. “Agentic third-party applications such as Muse have the same obligations, and we’ve requested that Meta remove Amazon from the experience.” 

According to the spokesperson, Meta declined Amazon’s request to remove the bot from its site.  

Agentic shopping is still relatively new and infrequently used by consumers, who mostly utilize AI agents for product research before deciding to make a purchase on their own.

Blocking outside AI agents from accessing its retail platform will likely have little impact on Amazon’s overall sales, but highlights a burgeoning fight between AI developers for access to high-traffic online consumer spaces, and potentially, the future of automated shopping habits.