The company is blocking third-party artificial intelligence (AI) shopping tools from accessing its site even as it explores partnerships and builds its own AI-driven buying experiences, underscoring the high stakes for payments, commerce and customer ownership as automated purchasing accelerates.
According to a CNBC report published Wednesday (Dec, 24), the rise of AI shopping agents has created what analysts describe as a “leader’s dilemma” for Amazon. New tools from AI companies allow consumers to search for products, compare prices and complete purchases inside a chatbot, bypassing traditional retail sites altogether. That shift threatens Amazon’s direct relationship with shoppers, its advertising business and its ability to control data that drives conversion and loyalty.
Amazon has so far taken a defensive posture. The company recently updated the code underpinning its website to block dozens of AI bots from crawling its pages and scraping data, including agents tied to major AI providers.
It has also gone on offense in court, suing Perplexity over an AI browser agent that can make purchases on users’ behalf, alleging unauthorized access to its site.
At the same time, Amazon continues to invest heavily in its own tools, including Rufus, a shopping chatbot, and “Buy for Me,” an experimental agent that can complete purchases from other retailers within Amazon’s app.
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The company’s stance has evolved rapidly. CEO Andy Jassy has publicly acknowledged that AI agents will permeate daily life, and Amazon has signaled openness to working with third-party agents in the future. A recent job posting seeking a corporate development leader with experience in “agentic commerce” suggests Amazon is preparing for a more collaborative phase, even as it seeks to protect its most valuable data assets.
“With an agent on ChatGPT, retailers risk relinquishing transactions on their site to pay a toll on someone else’s highway for the same transaction,” Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at Forrester, told CNBC.
PYMNTS has tracked this tension closely in recent coverage, reporting on the rapid emergence of agentic commerce models and the implications for payments flows, merchant economics and platform control. PYMNTS has also reported on Amazon’s own AI shopping initiatives, including Rufus’ expanding capabilities and tests that allow automated purchasing when prices fall below preset thresholds.
For payments and commerce leaders, Amazon’s balancing act offers a clear signal. As AI agents move from novelty to infrastructure, the fight over who controls the checkout experience — and the payment rails behind it — is entering a critical phase.
