Amazon Blocks AI Chatbots While Rivals Embrace Them

Amazon is pursuing a risky strategy as artificial intelligence reshapes online shopping: blocking third-party AI assistants from its platform while competitors roll out the welcome mat.

The approach comes into focus against new data from this year's Prime Day event. U.S. shoppers spent $26.4 billion across all retail sites during the four-day period, according to Adobe. For the first time, visitors arriving from AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini were 40% more likely to complete purchases than those coming through search engines, email, or social media.

That marks a significant shift. Adobe's historical data shows AI-referred shoppers previously had the lowest conversion rates. The reversal suggests these tools are becoming genuinely useful shopping assistants, providing information that helps consumers buy with confidence.

The Amazon exception

While Walmart, Target, and other major retailers have opened their product catalogs to outside AI assistants, Amazon has taken the opposite path. The company sued Perplexity over its autonomous shopping browser and won a preliminary injunction blocking the tool from logged-in areas of Amazon's site. Amazon argued that unauthorized shopping agents compromise the trusted customer experience. Perplexity is appealing the decision.

Amazon has also blocked ChatGPT's web crawlers from indexing its product listings. At the same time, the company has begun purchasing ads inside ChatGPT to redirect shoppers back to Amazon.com — a move first identified by Marketplace Pulse founder Juozas Kaziukėnas and reported by Business Insider and Modern Retail.

Data from J.P. Morgan shows agentic AI drives less than 1% of traffic to major online retailers overall. Amazon's share sits even lower at approximately 0.4%, the smallest among leading e-commerce platforms.

Why it matters

Amazon's advertising business now generates an estimated $83 billion annually and accounts for roughly one-third of the company's operating income, according to J.P. Morgan projections. That revenue stream depends on shoppers browsing Amazon's site and viewing sponsored product listings — not delegating purchase decisions to external chatbots Amazon cannot monetize or control.

The long-term question is whether Amazon can maintain its position as a primary shopping destination or risk becoming just another option presented by AI assistants that consumers increasingly trust.

Amazon's counter-bet

The company is investing heavily in its own AI shopping assistant, originally launched as Rufus and integrated in May into a service called Alexa for Shopping. Amazon reports the tool has attracted over 250 million users, with monthly active users climbing more than 115% year-over-year. Customers who engage with the assistant are more than 60% likelier to make purchases, and Amazon Web Services stated the tool generated nearly $12 billion in incremental sales last year.

During Amazon's April earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy acknowledged the company is in discussions with AI firms to develop better integration between Amazon and third-party agents. However, he maintained that external assistants currently fall short — lacking access to individual shopping histories and frequently providing inaccurate pricing.

Jassy argued that shoppers will ultimately prefer whichever assistant knows them best, the competitive advantage Amazon is pursuing with its proprietary tools. "We are aiming to have it be the best shopping assistant anywhere," he said.

These details were first reported by GeekWire.