New Obstacles for AI Agents: Website Blocks and the Struggle for Industry Open Standards

Personal AI agents such as Meta's Muse and ChatGPT's Dots are frequently blocked by websites when booking tickets and shopping for users; Amazon explicitly blocks Muse, while Walmart, eBay, Yelp, Delta and other companies each have different attitudes. Reasons for blocking include active restrictions and traditional anti-crawler verification mechanisms, and companies such as Meta, Walmart, Stripe, Sierra have begun to formulate open standards for agent communication for online commerce.