Websites are closing their doors to AI agents

Autonomous agents are the new thing in AI. OpenAI, Meta, Google, Instinct and others promise that their agents can scour the internet on your behalf, from booking dinner to cleaning out your inbox to buying new shoes. But what happens when the rest of the Internet isn’t working properly?

In recent weeks, users of services such as Meta’s Muse, xAI’s Grok, OpenAI’s Dots, and Instinct have reported blockages preventing their AI agents from performing tasks on major websites. Yelp said TechCrunch that it only allows AI agents who pay for its data licensing program, while Delta Air Lines blocks them from booking tickets on behalf of users. JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab have also confirmed that they block AI agent access to accounts for security reasons. Some users say sites that previously worked with their AI agent are no longer accessible, including Cars.com and Amtrak, suggesting other companies may be quietly blocking them.

Amazon was already battling AI agents last year when it banned Perplexity’s agent shopping feature and sued the AI ​​startup, raising legal and practical questions about the future of agents on the web. At the time, Amazon said it had “repeatedly requested” that Perplexity stop allowing its AI agents to make purchases on its website, adding that third-party companies that purchase items on behalf of customers “should operate openly and respect service providers’ decisions whether to participate.”

Perplexity responded by pointing out that Amazon doesn’t want AI agents roaming its platform because it won’t attract as many human eyeballs in front of its ads – which East a real challenge for the e-commerce giant. The AI ​​startup likened its AI agent to an extension of the user, arguing that Amazon “does not believe in your right to hire labor, to have an assistant or employee acting on your behalf.” While a judge later ordered Perplexity to block its AI agents from making purchases on its website, an appeals court overturned that decision in August. Amazon has since filed an amended complaint.

This ongoing legal battle has not stopped OpenAI, Meta and Google from deploying their own agents. But they face the same problems as Perplexity. Muse, Meta’s deceptively cute AI assistant, recently faced the wrath of Amazon, which said its “continuous access” violated its site policies. There are reports that xAI’s Grok, Instinct’s AI agent, and OpenAI’s Dots can’t use Amazon either. xAI owner Elon Musk responded by saying he “maybe should start a competitor to Amazon.” The more robots have difficulty accessing places, the more questions about their usefulness multiply.

“Does this impact the perceived value of Anthropics and OpenAI? I would say absolutely,” said Chris Canal, CEO of AI security evaluator EquiStamp. The edge. “One of the claims is that they’re going to permeate every aspect of our lives and be able to do everything we could do online. If there are companies actively working to make sure that doesn’t happen, agents can just do less useful things.”

Meta responded to cases of websites blocking Muse in an article published earlier this month. “Refusing a personal agent means denying the customer behind them,” the company says. “We would rather work with businesses to address the underlying concerns than see them lose that customer. » Instead of trying to fight Amazon, the company partnered with retailers like Walmart, Gap, Sephora, Best Buy and others, allowing Muse to shop on their sites. At the same time, Shopify also opened its storefront network to AI agents.

The edge contacted OpenAI and Google for comment on the obstacles their AI agents face, but did not immediately respond. Instinct declined to comment.

Even if websites don’t completely ban AI agents, they can still run afoul of anti-bot systems, which have become ubiquitous across the web. Reports on Reddit suggest that Google is blocking some accounts that use Muse due to “suspicious activity,” while others have reported payment issues on Walmart despite its Meta partnership. “There are all kinds of things that are put in place not even to block agents, but to generally block robots or programs that try to defraud or hack,” adds Canal. “These AI agents trigger these same protections.”

Web architecture provider Cloudflare has also played a role in helping sites combat unwanted AI visitors. After introducing one-click blocking for AI crawlers in 2025, Cloudflare began blocking crawlers that were simultaneously mining websites for both search indexing and AI training. The move is part of Cloudflare’s efforts to save the web from an influx of AI bots, which are straining internet infrastructure and wreaking havoc on email inboxes, and which could eventually make it even harder than it already is to compete with bots when buying concert tickets, booking reservations or trying to get your hands on certain products.

While these blocks may help keep some AI agents and bots away from a website, Canal says they will ultimately make the web more “annoying” to use as more sites deploy interfaces to confirm that you are not a bot. “We may soon see them on a simple grocery store website, where you have to jump through a lot of hoops to prove that you are a human using the computer or your phone.”