Amazon has blocked Meta’s newly launched Muse AI agent from shopping on Amazon.com on behalf of users, marking an early dispute over how autonomous AI assistants interact with major e-commerce platforms.
The restriction began appearing on Sunday night, with Muse users attempting to shop on Amazon receiving a notification stating that access by an unauthorised AI agent violated the retailer’s conditions of use. Amazon said Meta had not received permission for Muse to access its marketplace for automated shopping.
Muse, launched by Meta earlier in September, is positioned as a personal AI assistant capable of carrying out tasks for users rather than only responding to questions. Its capabilities include browsing websites, shopping online and booking appointments, placing it within the emerging category of agentic AI tools designed to complete actions across third-party services.
Amazon has raised concerns about how the assistant interacts with its platform. The company said Meta did not inform it that Muse would access Amazon.com and that the agent does not identify itself while browsing the site. Amazon has also raised privacy and security concerns related to customer information and credentials.
Meta, however, has maintained that Muse is designed with safeguards around sensitive user information. The company has said the assistant cannot directly access passwords or payment details and uses security mechanisms intended to protect information required to complete online tasks.
The development highlights a broader challenge emerging around AI agents as technology companies move from conversational chatbots towards systems capable of independently navigating websites and completing transactions. These tools may interact with retailers, travel platforms and other digital services without the direct integrations traditionally used to connect third-party applications.
For e-commerce companies, agent-driven shopping also raises questions around control of the customer journey, product discovery, personalisation, transactions and responsibility when an automated assistant makes an incorrect purchase.
Amazon has previously taken action against third-party AI shopping tools. The company was involved in a dispute with Perplexity over automated access to Amazon through its Comet browser, reflecting wider tensions over how external AI agents should operate on online marketplaces.
The latest action does not prevent people from using Muse for other tasks, but users cannot currently rely on the assistant to complete purchases through Amazon.
As consumer-facing AI agents expand their ability to perform tasks across the internet, the Amazon-Meta dispute underscores the growing importance of permissions, transparency and platform rules in determining where autonomous AI systems can operate.
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