Amazon launched "workflows," a free agent that monitors prices, ratings and inventory for third-party merchants. Days earlier it cut off Meta's Muse, saying outside agents should respect a platform's decision on whether to participate.
Amazon had two things to say about AI agents this week, and they point in different directions depending on whose agent it is.
On Wednesday, the company introduced a new agentic service for third-party sellers on its main store. Known as "workflows," it runs continuously to carry out seller instructions, such as sending an alert if a product's ratings suddenly decline or monitoring the prices of specific items.
The service sits inside Amazon's Seller Assistant platform, which can store each seller's profile to make recommendations on pricing, promotions and inventory. It can connect through a plug-in to AI tools sellers already use, starting with Amazon's own Quick and Anthropic's Claude. Mary Beth Westmoreland, Amazon's vice president of worldwide selling experience, said the agent is free and optional. Sellers decide how much of their data to share.
A few days earlier, Amazon went the other way with an agent it does not control. It blocked Meta's new Muse app from accessing its site and buying items on behalf of users, saying it had not been told in advance and had not authorized the access. "We think it's fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate," an Amazon spokesperson said. Meta declined to comment.
Analysts point to Amazon's large advertising business. If agents do more of the shopping, there are fewer people browsing the store to see its ads.
"Almost all of the internet marketplaces either have a very large advertising business or plan to build one over time," said Josh Beck, a technology analyst at Raymond James. "So this, I think, is a major chokepoint." Beck said marketplaces will allow outside agents only if they believe the agents bring enough new customers to avoid becoming "net negative."
Meta has lined up its own partners. It has established relationships with brands including Shopify, Instacart and Dick's Sporting Goods. But Amazon is the largest store an agent could want access to, and for now Muse cannot shop there.
Taken together, Amazon is putting AI agents to work inside its marketplace on terms it sets, while keeping an outside agent from buying there without its authorization. Amazon shares fell about 2% on Wednesday alongside the broader technology selloff.
The question for investors is whether that line holds as agents spread. General Mills estimated on Wednesday that agentic commerce could reach about 20% of food sales by 2030. If shoppers increasingly start with an assistant rather than a store, a marketplace that refuses outside agents may lose traffic, and one that lets them in may lose its ad audience. Amazon's next decision on whether to negotiate access with Meta or other agent makers will show which risk it considers larger.