Amazon bloquea a Perplexity: Los agentes de IA no podrán realizar compras online para usuarios
Amazon cierra la puerta a las compras automatizadas de IA
El gigante del comercio electrónico ha prohibido a Perplexity utilizar agentes de inteligencia artificial para realizar compras en nombre de los usuarios, marcando un punto de inflexión en la automatización del comercio digital.
Restricciones que redefinen los límites de la IA
La medida establece nuevos parámetros sobre hasta dónde pueden llegar los asistentes virtuales en la ejecución de transacciones comerciales, poniendo freno a lo que algunos veían como el siguiente paso natural en la evolución del e-commerce.
Implicaciones para el futuro del comercio automatizado
Esta decisión no solo afecta a Perplexity, sino que sienta un precedente para toda la industria sobre los límites de la automatización en procesos de compra - porque cuando se trata de dinero, incluso los algoritmos más avanzados necesitan supervisión humana. Como siempre en tecnología: un paso adelante en innovación, dos pasos atrás en confianza ciega.
Amazon accuses perplexity of breaking its conditions
Perplexity’s Comet browser, launched in July this year, can research and, like in this case, purchase products on behalf of users, among a host of other things.
Amazon’s complaint, however, claims that Perplexity’s agent failed to properly identify itself and in some cases logged directly into users’ Amazon accounts as if it were a standard Chrome browser. The company said this “degraded the customer experience” by bypassing personalization systems and introducing inaccuracies in delivery estimates and pricing.
Amazon’s conditions for its online store make it clear that no one is allowed to use bots or automated tools to scrape data or make purchases.
“We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers should operate openly and respect service provider decisions,” Amazon’s spokesperson Lara Hendrickson wrote in a statement, adding that Amazon has been sending requests to Perplexity to “remove Amazon from the Comet experience, particularly in light of the degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides.”
Perplexity’s response
In a draft blog post responding to the letter, Perplexity accused Amazon of trying to “eliminate user rights” in order to boost advertising revenue, while maintaining that its Comet browser neither trains on nor scrapes data from Amazon’s site.
Perplexity’s chief executive officer, Aravind Srinivas, rejected Amazon’s characterization and stated that agents should have all the same rights and responsibilities as a human user. He added that “it’s not Amazon’s job to survey who is shopping on behalf of whom.”
Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy appeared to acknowledge the challenge during an earnings call last week, noting that most AI shopping agents currently deliver “not good” customer experiences due to limited personalization and inconsistent fulfillment data.
Still, he hinted that partnerships with third-party developers could emerge in the future. “I do think we will find ways to collaborate,” Jassy said.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is also an investor in Perplexity AI.
Competition and control in the AI era
Amazon’s objections come as it develops its own set of AI-driven shopping tools. Earlier this year, it introduced “Buy For Me,” which lets users purchase items from brand websites within its app, and “Rufus,” an AI assistant capable of recommending and adding products to a cart.
It recently launched another AI feature known as “Help Me Decide,” and this feature helps hesitant buyers make a buying decision faster.
Some observers see the company’s action against Perplexity as a defensive move to protect its ecosystem and its advertising business, which earns billions of dollars annually by selling sponsored product placements in search results.
Get up to $30,050 in trading rewards when you join Bybit today
