Amazon Clarifies That AI Agents Are Welcome on Its Platform, Provided They Are Selling Something
A shopping agent that wants in is advised to open a seller account, list itself for $19.99, and wait.
SEATTLE — Amazon moved this week to open its seller tools to outside AI agents, days after blocking a rival shopping agent from its storefront, and said the two decisions reflect a single consistent principle: agents are welcome on Amazon as long as they are on the side of the transaction that pays Amazon a fee.
"We believe agents are the future of commerce," said an Amazon spokesperson. "Specifically, the half of commerce where the agent adjusts prices, restocks inventory, and pays for sponsored placement. The other half of commerce has a checkout button, and it is for people."
Under the new plugin, a seller's AI agent can check stock, change listings and reprice products without opening the seller dashboard. An agent that attempts to purchase any of those products, the company said, will be greeted by a message explaining that it is an unauthorized AI agent and suggesting several sponsored alternatives.
Retail analysts said the arrangement had a certain elegance. "Amazon has built a marketplace where AI agents set the prices and human beings pay them," said Delphine Achterberg-Osei, a commerce analyst. "That is not a loophole. That is the business plan with the lights on."
In early testing, according to a person familiar with the beta, one seller's agent lowered the price of a phone case 1,140 times in a single afternoon in an attempt to win the buy box against another seller's agent, while a third agent, blocked at checkout, watched.
Sellers welcomed the change. "I used to spend four hours a day in the dashboard," said Oren Maddox-Tanaka, who sells kitchen goods in Ohio. "Now my agent spends 24 hours a day in it, and I spend four hours a day reading what it did."
At press time, the blocked shopping agent had registered as a seller, listed itself for $19.99 with free Prime shipping, and bought itself.