Amazon, Delta Air Lines, Yelp and several large U.S. banks are blocking AI shopping and booking agents from their sites, limiting what the assistants can do for users. Early adopters of Meta’s Muse, OpenAI’s Dots and xAI’s Grok have reported repeated failures in recent weeks.
Key points
- Amazon began blocking Meta's Muse agent on Sept. 20, after Meta declined a request to remove Amazon from the experience.
- Delta is preventing outside AI agents from booking tickets, and Yelp says it allows only agents that pay for data licensing.
- Citi and Bank of America have restricted third-party agents from accounts; JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab confirmed restrictions.
- An Apollo economist estimates 3% interest on $1.6 trillion in deposits would cost three large banks about $47 billion a year.
The blocks cut into the main pitch for AI agents: software that handles errands such as buying products, booking flights and moving money on a person’s behalf. Without access to the sites where those tasks happen, the tools have little to automate. Users of Instinct, another agent, have also reported blocks, according to The Verge.
Amazon, Delta and Yelp shut out agents
Amazon began blocking Meta’s Muse on Sept. 20, Bloomberg reported, after Meta refused a request to pull the agent from Amazon’s store. Meta introduced Muse on Sept. 8. An Amazon spokesperson told Forbes the company had “requested that Meta remove Amazon from the experience.”
Amazon gave three reasons, according to the research record. Meta did not tell it Muse would access the store, the agent does not identify itself while browsing, and it appears to capture and store customer credentials. Meta says Muse cannot see passwords or payment methods. A pop-up on Amazon’s site says continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates its Conditions of Use.
Delta is stopping outside agents from booking tickets. Delta’s own statement was not available, and the exact scope of its block is unclear. Yelp told TechCrunch it permits only AI agents that pay for data licensing. Reports also say Amazon is blocking Grok and Dots, but that is not confirmed.
Banks restrict access to customer accounts
Citigroup and Bank of America have restricted third-party AI agents from account access and transactions, the Financial Times reported. Citi does not allow outside agents to log in or transact directly. Bank of America reportedly requires manual approval for transfers rather than imposing a full lockout.
JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab confirmed they restrict bots from customer accounts, citing security risks. Reports differ on how far JPMorgan’s position goes. The FT describes it as similar to Citi’s, while BigGo says CEO Jamie Dimon only signaled strict limits.
Wall Street executives have contacted the Federal Reserve, according to the research notes. Regulators have privately welcomed the blocks and think legal clarification on who is liable for agent-driven transactions may be needed.
Money drives some of the resistance
Security is the stated reason, but finances also play a part. Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok has argued that agents could shift idle checking balances into higher-yielding savings. About $1.6 trillion in interest-free deposits sits at JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Paying 3% on it would add about $47 billion a year in costs, nearly half the banks’ combined annual profit, per FT figures.
The scenario is hypothetical. Agent-driven transfers do not yet show up in deposit data. Apollo also runs a large credit business that would benefit if bank funding became more expensive, according to a newsletter claim.
In retail, agents can bypass sponsored listings and product recommendations. That threatens advertising income at companies such as Amazon and Yelp. Estimates of Amazon’s ad business vary, from $56 billion to $68 billion depending on the source.
Technical friction and partner deals
Technical barriers add to the problem. Anti-bot tools from providers such as Cloudflare can trigger CAPTCHA puzzles, which are tests designed to tell humans from software, and these can interrupt an agent mid-checkout. No direct confirmation that Cloudflare’s tools are blocking agents was found, only that the company blocks AI crawlers more broadly. A report on the wave of blocks describes the industry lacking clear standards to separate authorized user agents from malicious scrapers.
Some retailers are working with agent makers. Meta named Walmart, Best Buy, Gap, Sephora and Wayfair as retail partners at its Sept. 24 Connect event. Shopify turns on checkout through Meta by default for eligible stores.
Amazon has also sued Perplexity over its Comet browser and moved to block shopping agents from Google and OpenAI. The research notes found no response from OpenAI, xAI or Meta to the wider blocks beyond Meta’s rebuttal to Amazon.
