Shopping Agents Spark Platform Wars

Consumer agent apps that browse sites, complete checkouts, and may capture credentials are moving from lab demos to mass downloads, forcing e‑commerce platforms to choose between banning, suing, or negotiating API/agent access. That conflict will shape who controls commerce data, ad impressions, and user credentials — and could drive a split between agent‑friendly marketplaces and closed gardens. — This matters because it determines whether agentic AI becomes a universal consumer utility or a battleground that fragments the modern web, with consequences for privacy, competition, and ad/revenue flows.