Amazon, banks and airlines block AI assistants from shopping on users' behalf

E-commerce companies, airlines and financial institutions including Amazon, eBay, Delta Air Lines and JPMorgan Chase have begun blocking access on a large scale by AI agents such as Muse, Grok, Dots and Gemini, preventing them from autonomously shopping, booking tickets or managing bank accounts on users' behalf; these agents were launched by companies including OpenAI, Meta, Google and xAI. The companies imposing restrictions say the agents' behavior violates terms of service and poses security risks; Delta confirmed it blocks such tools from purchasing tickets on customers' behalf, JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab imposed preventive blocks on customer bank accounts, Yelp allows access only to agents that purchase its official data licensing program, and Cars.com and Amtrak have also begun restricting access. After repeatedly asking Perplexity to disable its on-site purchasing feature, Amazon sued it, arguing that external companies shopping on consumers' behalf should operate transparently and respect service providers' decisions on whether to participate.