Banks, airlines and Amazon are shutting the door on AI agents
The Verge reports that Delta, JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab and Amazon are among the sites blocking the AI assistants that are supposed to do your errands.
AI companies promise agents that book your dinner and buy your shoes. A lot of the web is saying no. The Verge's Emma Roth reported on October 17, 2026, that popular sites are blocking these AI assistants.
Who is blocking
The Verge reports that people using Meta's Muse, xAI's Grok, OpenAI's Dots and Instinct's agent have hit blocks on major sites. According to The Verge, Delta Air Lines is stopping agents from booking tickets, and JPMorgan Chase and Charles Schwab say they block agents from accounts over security concerns. Yelp told TechCrunch it only allows agents that pay for its data licensing program, The Verge says.
Some users say Cars.com and Amtrak stopped working with their agents, which The Verge says suggests other companies may be blocking quietly.
Amazon's long fight
Amazon has been fighting agents for a while. The Verge recounts that Amazon banned Perplexity's shopping agent and sued the company. A judge ordered Perplexity to stop, but an appeals court overturned that ruling in August, and Amazon has filed an amended complaint, The Verge reports.
The Verge says Amazon now says Muse's access violates its policies, and there are reports that Grok, Instinct's agent and Dots cannot use Amazon either. Elon Musk responded that maybe he "should start a competitor to Amazon," according to The Verge.
Why it is happening
Security is one reason. Ads are another: Perplexity argued that Amazon wants human eyes on its ads, The Verge reports. And some blocks may not be aimed at agents at all. Chris Canal, CEO of the AI safety evaluator EquiStamp, told The Verge that anti-bot systems built to stop scammers and hackers also catch AI agents.
Not everyone is closing up. The Verge reports Meta has partnered with Walmart, Gap, Sephora, Best Buy and others so Muse can shop there, and Shopify has opened its stores to agents.
What it means for you
If your AI assistant suddenly fails on a site it used to handle, it may not be broken. The site may have shut it out. Canal told The Verge the web could get more "annoying" for everyone, with more checks to prove you are human.
Source: The Verge