For JPMorgan, Amazon, fighting AI bots like Meta Muse may not be a winning long-term strategy

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The biggest names in banking and retail are starting to fight the tech titans, and one another, over a new kind of customer: the AI personal agent.

JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab, Amazon, Neiman Marcus and Kohl's have moved to block personal agents like Meta Muse just as consumers start sending them out to find better savings rates, shop for deals and cancel subscriptions.

The era of agentic AI has arrived, but there is uncertainty about what the landscape will look like when virtual storefronts become flooded with AI agents or when a business tries to block them.

Reports last week of AI agents going rogue in customer accounts — and prominent politicians including Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. Bernie Sanders calling for bot legislation in response to the headlines — come on the heels of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon saying the bank currently blocks external AI agents from operating on behalf of retail customers, citing security risks. 

Some other retailers are leaning in. Walmart announced last week it is opening the virtual doors to AI agents that customers prefer to use. "We price products, not people, so the prices that an AI agent sees are the same prices that a human would see on Walmart.com, with applicable offers and fees shown before purchase," the company said in a blog post announcing the decision. 

A recent audit of 51 large U.S. retailers' published access rules by Billions Network, an identity-verification company, found only 11 have taken a deliberate position on AI agents. Five, including Amazon, Kohl's and Neiman Marcus, explicitly restrict them, while 37 block shopping agents largely by accident, through older bot rules written for scrapers. None has a way for a verified agent to complete a purchase.

Evin McMullen, Billions' co-founder and CEO, said at this point, "Most of the retailers in our audit have not made a decision about AI agents at all."

Giving customers control over AI agents

JPMorgan declined to comment.

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