Amazon Blocks Meta's Muse AI Shopping Agent
AI-generated image · US National Wire
The e-commerce giant is cutting off Meta's agentic AI to protect customer data and its high-margin advertising business.
Amazon has blocked Meta's Muse AI agent from accessing its storefront, as first reported by The Register. The move comes after Amazon unsuccessfully requested that Meta prevent the AI agent from accessing its store.
Meta launched Muse in the U.S. this month as an agent capable of performing tasks on a user's behalf, including making payments and shopping. When a service lacks a public API, Meta states Muse operates through a browser similarly to a human. However, Amazon told GeekWire that Meta failed to obtain authorization or provide notification that Muse would access the store. Amazon further alleged that the agent does not identify itself while browsing and appears to store customer credentials and account information, such as order history.
Meta contends that Muse cannot see payment methods or passwords, as credentials are kept in secure storage.
Beyond security, the conflict highlights a battle over the customer journey. Amazon generated over $68 billion in advertising revenue last year, a figure driven by shoppers interacting with sponsored placements and recommendation systems. If third-party agents handle product discovery and purchasing, Amazon risks losing those high-value interactions.
Amazon is pursuing its own agentic shopping tools, including Alexa for Shopping and Buy for Me, the latter of which purchases goods from other retailers. While Amazon has also moved to block agents from OpenAI and Google and took Perplexity to court over the Comet browser, an Amazon spokesperson told The Register that third-party applications should respect service provider decisions to ensure a reliable experience.