Your AI assistant just ordered the groceries. It picked the brand, found the store and paid. The store has no idea who you are. Asa Fitch at the Journal's Heard on the Street says that's the new problem for every online seller. Amazon (AMZN) has answered by locking the door.
Millions of people now lean on agents like Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots to choose what to buy. The bots also bid at auctions, book trips and tables, plan meals and fill grocery carts. BrightEdge, a search-optimization firm, says purchases made through agents are growing 43% month over month and have about quadrupled since April. Yet only about 3% of the online sellers it works with let an agent complete a purchase.
The trouble is the view. A shopper's clicks and searches are easy to track. An agent's aren't, and it's often unclear whom it works for. Jim Yu, BrightEdge's CEO, says different AI models judge products differently, so a marketer has to please each one. Mistakes by an agent can mean more returns and more credit-card chargebacks. Fed governor Christopher Waller raised the harder question in a recent speech. The task shifts, he said, to “proving that an agent has the authority to pay on the buyer's behalf.”
Who lets the bot in
Amazon has banned Muse and Dots from shopping on its site. Fitch calls that wise for now. A Rosenblatt Securities analyst notes that Amazon already owns the search, the sale, the delivery and the data. And its Prime members won't switch stores because a bot was turned away. Target lets in agents from an approved list. Walmart works with OpenAI and Google, and its U.S. chief says the conversion rates are “fantastic.” DoorDash built its own agent, called Ask. Its CEO says customers “honestly just care about getting their burrito.” Shoppers seem ready. In an Accenture survey of 25,590 consumers, 85% were open to working with an agent on purchases. Only 9% would let the AI buy on its own.
Our read
Insurance and Consumer Protection, M11, with a side of Investments, IN04. We hold Amazon at weight in 19 books. Nothing added. The stock rose 5% on Monday, Oct. 19, to 262.45, after a bullish Morgan Stanley note. Amazon's edge is owning the whole chain, and that's why Fitch thinks the ban costs it little for now. For the merchant in the middle, the agent is a new middleman. It takes the customer relationship and leaves the chargebacks. Waller's question is the one we'd ask about your own money. When a bot pays, somebody has to prove it was allowed to, and somebody eats the mistake.
Here's the check for your household. If anyone in your home has let an agent shop, look at which card it uses. Put the agent on one credit card, not a debit card. Credit cards generally give stronger dispute rights, and a debit card pulls money straight from checking while you argue. Waller's point cuts the other way too. You gave the bot permission, so a dispute over its mistake may be harder to win. Set a spending limit and turn on a text alert for every purchase. Then read the returns policy of the stores it buys from. If you'd like help setting those limits, it's a quick item for your next review.