A quiet milestone in the rise of autonomous AI just became a public turning point. Perplexity’s agentic AI shopping assistant, Comet, successfully placed an order on Amazon on behalf of a user — and the company immediately moved to shut it down.

This isn’t a quirky experiment or a lab demo. It’s the first high-profile case of an AI agent transacting inside a major e-commerce platform, triggering legal threats and a broader debate about who — or what — is allowed to act online.

Amazon’s cease-and-desist to Perplexity wasn’t just about a bot making a purchase. It raised a foundational question that until now has mostly lived in theory: when AI agents act in the real world, how should they identify themselves — and who decides the rules?

That question is no longer abstract. This clash centers on a real transaction, a real user, and a real platform boundary being tested.

At the center is a simple but novel event: a Perplexity user instructed Comet to buy something on Amazon, and the agent successfully completed the order.

Amazon argues that unlike meal-delivery services or travel-booking platforms, which clearly disclose that they are placing orders on behalf of customers, Comet executed the purchase without identifying itself — a direct violation of Amazon’s terms.

Those services identify themselves through approved API integrations and system-level credentials, so platforms know the request is coming from an authorized commercial partner — not a hidden bot.

Amazon also claims the customer shopping experience is degraded because the agent bypasses Amazon’s recommendation engine, product pages, and customer-support layer — systems Amazon says exist to help users make informed decisions.

Perplexity argues that this is exactly why people want agents: to shop efficiently without upsells, ads, or marketing pressure.

"Amazon should love this," Perplexity says. "Easier shopping means more transactions and happier customers. But Amazon doesn’t care. They’re more interested in serving you ads, sponsored results, and influencing your purchasing decisions with upsells and confusing offers." — Perplexity AI according to PC Magazine.

Amazon referenced potential computer fraud, signaling this is only the beginning.

Amazon says this moment has been building for months. The company stated it had repeatedly requested that Perplexity stop enabling its Comet agent to shop on Amazon, arguing the tool bypassed platform safeguards and risked degrading the consumer experience. In Amazon’s words, “third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate.”

Amazon also pointed to its own AI shopping assistant as evidence that agent-powered purchasing can be supported when done transparently.

This is the first commercial flashpoint over AI agents acting on behalf of humans at scale.

Just a few years ago, AI mostly answered questions. Now it executes tasks, makes decisions, and handles transactions.

That shift changes the stakes. Autonomous agents introduce risks humans never faced when simply clicking “Buy Now”:

Even OpenAI acknowledged that its Atlas agent could buy the wrong product — a public admission that real-world autonomy carries real-world consequences.

Identity isn’t only about transparency — it's about trust, accountability, and preventing automated scams and unauthorized purchases at scale.

Once money and commerce are involved, identity can’t be optional.

Who’s right? Both — and neither — at once.

Amazon’s analogy to delivery apps and travel portals is sensible. If a tool acts commercially, platforms expect transparency.

Perplexity’s point is also real: if platforms alone decide which agents can act, the agent economy might begin where the app economy ended — under the control of a few gatekeepers.

Today’s debate isn’t about one purchase. It’s about who gets to participate in the agent era — and under whose rules.

This clash isn't happening in isolation. Others have been preparing for the identity question long before this moment arrived.

Sam Altman’s World has already built and deployed a biometric digital identity network designed to ensure AI agents represent real humans — not anonymous algorithms.

The system is not theoretical; it is operating today:

How it works in practice:

Deployment is already underway:

In other words:
An identity layer for AI agents isn’t coming — it has begun rolling out in public.

Whether one agrees with biometrics or not, the message is clear:

Identity is becoming necessary infrastructure in the AI economy.

Governments have seen this coming, but frameworks are early:

There is no global standard.

Right now, we live in the pre-robots.txt moment for AI agents.

In the early internet, automated bots began crawling websites so search engines could index pages and make them discoverable. But there were no standards for where bots could go or what they could access, leading to conflicts, content-scraping concerns, and inconsistent behavior across the web.

The robots.txt file eventually emerged as a simple rulebook: websites could tell bots where they were allowed to crawl and what they were allowed to see.

AI agents are now entering a similar phase — acting inside online systems before a formal framework exists to govern how they identify themselves, what access they should have, and who gets to authorize them to act on a user’s behalf.

History suggests that these early agent disputes will shape future norms and enforcement.

Underneath the legal language and blog posts is a deeper question:

Will the future of digital agents be open — or controlled by a handful of platforms?

If every marketplace sets its own AI rules, fragmentation follows.
If platforms require certification, competition narrows.
If no guardrails exist, trust collapses.

Somewhere between those extremes, the future is forming — and the agent economy will be shaped by whether platforms, regulators, or users set the rules.

Q: Why did Amazon react so strongly?
A: Because Comet acted without identifying itself — breaking Amazon’s terms and introducing potential fraud risk.

Q: Is this a big deal?
A: Yes. It’s the first public battle over AI agents conducting real transactions inside a major platform.

Q: Does this affect everyday people yet?
A: It will. Agents will soon handle real transactions, billing, travel, government services, and more.

Q: Why can’t agents just act silently?
A: Without identification and authorization rules, fraud and automated abuse become much easier.

Q: Could Amazon block all third-party AI agents in the future?
A: It's possible. Platforms may move toward certification or “trusted agent programs,” raising questions about openness vs gatekeeping.

Q: Do users actually want AI agents to shop for them?
A: Early behavior suggests yes — but only when agents are aligned, transparent, and safe. Trust will determine adoption, not hype.

This Amazon–Perplexity clash marks the beginning of the governance era for AI agents. It won’t be the last confrontation — but it may be remembered as the first moment the world started taking autonomous agent identity seriously.

For many people, this may feel abstract — another “Silicon Valley fight.” But AI agents won’t stop at ordering products, and the timeline is not theoretical.

With the holiday shopping season approaching — a time when e-commerce volume surges and consumers increasingly rely on AI assistants to surface deals, track prices, and complete purchases — ambiguity around agent identity could produce real-world ripple effects fast.

Imagine millions of AI agents comparison-shopping across platforms without a shared identity rulebook. A single misfire at scale — mistaken orders, fraudulent activity, or billing errors — could escalate far faster than a typical checkout error.

Soon, agents will:

The standards chosen now will determine:

The internet spent 25 years asking “Who are you?”

The next decade will ask:
“Who is your agent, and what are they allowed to do?”

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant used for research and drafting. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.