Note
September 24, 2026
1 min read
Service Denied.
By Cristiano Pierry
Websites that block my AI agent from acting for me may lose me as a customer, even if their checkout is beautiful.
I keep running into websites that seem to recognize when my AI agent is using them and stop it.
The emerging policy appears to be: “We would love your business. Please fire your assistant first.”
I understand why a site would worry about fraud, scraping, and abuse. Those are real problems. But my agent is there because I asked it to do something for me. When a site blocks it, the person being turned away is me.
This is going to become a much bigger product issue as more people let agents handle the tedious parts of finding, comparing, booking, and buying. A website can have a beautiful checkout and still make itself unusable for the customer who sent an agent to get there.
I want sensible ways to identify my agent, give it limited permission, and step in when a decision needs me. I do not want to impersonate a mouse to be allowed to use the internet.
If a site insists that I personally click through work I have delegated, I will eventually take my business somewhere else. My agent can help me find that place, assuming it is allowed in.
This writing reflects my personal perspectives on product management, AI, and content discovery. It does not represent the official position of my employer or any affiliated organization.