Purchases made through AI agents such as Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s Dots have been growing about 43% a month and are up roughly fourfold since April, yet just 3% of the online retailers BrightEdge serves allow agents to finish a checkout, according to Asa Fitch at The Wall Street Journal. Amazon blocks outside agents from buying, and Target only admits agents it has approved. Walmart went the other way by partnering with OpenAI and Google, and its US CEO David Guggina said the deals are bringing in new customers at “fantastic” conversion rates. Retailers that let agents in take on new problems, from proving an agent is authorized to pay to more returns and chargebacks when it buys the wrong thing. Mark Zuckerberg has also suggested Meta could take a small fee on each transaction.
