The way we shop online is on the cusp of changing for good. This week two AI agents – ChatGPT’s Shopping Research and Perplexity’s new shopping assistant – arrived to do all the bargain hunting for you. They can compare prices, check reviews, and pick the best options while you get on with something else.
Just as this future started to take shape, however, Amazon slammed the door. By blocking ChatGPT from accessing its website, the world’s biggest retailer has kicked off a fight over who gets to shape what you see, and what you can buy, online.
If you’re planning to rely on AI to help you with your deal hunting, this matters more than it might seem.
Amazon first
Some people love diving into every spec and price comparison before they buy anything online. I’m not one of them; I hate shopping. I want to find what I need at a price that feels reasonable and move on with my day.
That’s why I use Amazon. It’s quick, reliable and familiar. And I know I’m not the only one who does this. Which is exactly why Amazon sees ChatGPT entering the shopping space as a threat.
If people start their shopping journey with AI search agents instead, Amazon risks losing its place as the default starting point.
This week, after ChatGPT introduced Shopping Research, Amazon updated its robots.txt file to stop ChatGPT’s agents from scraping its site for data. The result: ChatGPT can no longer read Amazon product pages, prices, specs or reviews.
“In my view, Amazon’s decision to block OpenAI’s crawlers is the logical move in a technology clash between a dominant retail ecosystem and an emerging open one,” says Max Sinclair, CEO of AIO visibility startup Azoma.ai. “This pattern shows up in every major tech shift.”
Amazon protecting its grip on the market isn’t surprising, but it’s set to have real consequences. If AI shopping assistants take off, then the likes of Walmart and Target in the US, and Currys in the UK, along with thousands of independent retailers, could suddenly compete with Amazon in a way they never have before.
The Amazon paradox
“Amazon now faces a paradox,” says Sinclair. “If it stays closed it risks ceding the AI-agent layer to competitors. But if it opens up, it hands control of the customer relationship to an external platform.”
And Amazon’s move exposes a far bigger shift happening across retail. I spoke to Jonathan Arena, co-founder of New Generation, the company behind Kepler, which makes retail sites AI-shoppable, about what comes next.
“The simple reality is: if a brand doesn’t build an AI-ready version of its site, it won’t show up on the thousands of AI surfaces where people will eventually shop,” Arena says. “The brands investing now will be the ones consumers actually encounter.”
In other words: if your favorite shop doesn’t adapt, your AI assistant may never show it to you.
However the situation with Amazon plays out, the age of AI-driven shopping has already begun. The retailers that adapt will shape what you see, what you compare and what you buy; the ones that don’t will simply disappear from your AI agent’s results.
AI isn’t just changing how we shop – it’s changing who controls our entire shopping experience.
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