Why AI Agents Could Reshape the Web for Machines, Not People
AI agents internet impact is growing: personal agents that book flights or negotiate prices strain sites built for people, and platforms are split on blocking them.
AI agents are software tools that act for a person online, such as booking trips or comparing prices.
Agentic web traffic, meaning visits made by agents, reportedly tripled from August to September.
Many websites block agents, and Amazon is in a legal fight with Perplexity over them.
Shopify has opened separate checkout lanes for agents that skip pages built for human shoppers.
Rules on what agents may do on websites are still being written, and the contested ones will decide the outcome.