Amazon sued Perplexity this week for letting its Comet AI assistant shop on Amazon without permission.
Perplexity’s response? “Bullying is not innovation.”
This isn’t just another tech lawsuit. This is the first major legal case specifically about agentic AI commerce: AI agents that don’t just help you search, but complete transactions on your behalf.
And the outcome will shape how every business that relies on customers finding and buying from them actually survives the next few years.
What’s Actually Happening Here
Think about how you shop online right now. You search Google, click through to a website, browse products, add to cart, and check out.
That entire process might be about to disappear.
With AI shopping agents, you simply tell your assistant: “Buy me noise-cancelling headphones under $250.”
The agent searches, compares prices across platforms, evaluates reviews, picks a vendor, and completes the purchase. You never visit a website. You might not even see the brand name until the box arrives.
This isn’t a future scenario. Shopify reports that AI-driven traffic is up 7x since January 2025, with AI-driven orders up 11x.
The question at the heart of the Amazon lawsuit: Do you have the right to use your own AI assistant to make purchases on someone else’s platform?
Amazon says third-party agents need consent and transparency. Perplexity says users should control their digital assistants.
Both have valid points. And the irony isn’t lost on anyone that Jeff Bezos is an investor in Perplexity, which runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Why This Matters More Than You Think
If you run a business that depends on customers finding you online, this lawsuit matters because you’re caught in the middle. The traditional path to a sale (search engine, website visit, browsing, purchase) is being replaced by something completely different.
At the same time, nearly 60% of Google searches already end without a click, and AI is accelerating that trend.
Your website analytics might show flat or declining traffic while your actual sales potential is being decided by AI agents you don’t control, operating on platforms you don’t manage, using criteria you can’t influence.
The Real Question: Block It or Build For It?
When disruptive technology threatens an established business model, companies face a choice. Fight it, ignore it, or figure out how to work with it.
History isn’t kind to companies that choose wrong. We’ve seen this movie before.
The difference is speed; AI agents are moving faster than previous disruptions, and the window to adapt is smaller.
Research on successful adaptation shows a pattern: companies that “learn humbly and adapt at lightning speed” through rapid experimentation and selective scaling tend to survive disruption.
Those who defend their existing model for too long rarely recover.
Amazon’s lawsuit represents the “fight it” approach: using legal and technical controls to protect its ecosystem.
Meanwhile, OpenAI partnered directly with Etsy and Shopify to enable Instant Checkout directly in ChatGPT, and Stripe released the Agentic Commerce Protocol to standardize how agents interact with merchants.
Two different responses to the same threat.
What You Should Do Next
If you rely on organic search traffic or online sales, here’s what matters now:
1. Understand Where Your Risk Is
Map your customer journey and identify where an AI agent could step in.
If someone can tell ChatGPT “find me a plumber in Denver” or “order this part for my HVAC system,” and the agent completes that transaction without your website ever appearing, you have exposure.
2. Make Your Business Agent-Readable
AI agents don’t browse websites like humans. They need structured data, clear policies, and machine-readable information. That means:
- Complete product schema with accurate pricing, availability, and specifications
- Clear shipping, return, and warranty policies in formats agents can understand
- Consistent business information across all platforms
- Strong review profiles that agents can evaluate
3. Build for the Official Channels
The scrappy third-party agents will get blocked or regulated.
The official integrations, marketplace APIs, commerce protocols, and platform partnerships will be where the volume flows. Focus your effort there.
4. Shift Your Content Strategy
Generic SEO content is losing value fast.
Your content needs to be something agents actually want to cite: first-party data, real case studies, unique research, and genuine expertise.
5. Track What Matters
Your traditional analytics won’t capture AI-mediated commerce.
You need separate tracking for AI-origin conversions, including UTM parameters for ChatGPT referrals, marketplace orders, and protocol-level checkouts.
Want to hear what search marketing leaders are saying about AI search? Check out our SEO IRL 2025 blog post.
The Companies That Figure This Out Will Be The Ones Still Standing
Different technology, same fundamental question:
When new tech threatens an established business model, who gets to control the future?
Amazon has the power to resist through legal action and platform control. Most businesses don’t.
For everyone else, the practical choice is clear: work with AI agents, not against them.
The lawsuit will determine some legal boundaries. But the bigger shift, AI agents becoming the primary interface between customers and commerce, is already happening.
Research shows that about 1 in 5 ChatGPT conversations now show commercial intent, and that percentage is only going up.
You can’t stop this. But you can prepare for it.
Summary
The businesses that treat AI agents as a new acquisition channel, make their services agent-accessible, and build for official integrations will capture the growth.
Those who wait for the lawsuit to settle, or hope this passes, will find themselves competing for scraps in a market they no longer control.
We’re still early; most consumers aren’t using agentic AI yet… but early doesn’t mean slow.
The infrastructure is being built now.
The partnerships are forming now.
The protocols are being established now.
By the time this becomes obvious to everyone, the positions will already be locked in.
What’s your take? Are you preparing for AI agents, or waiting to see how this plays out?
Get Started Today
Start getting the online leads your quality business deserves today. Get a free no-obligation initial 30 minute consultation from one of our Google Certified Experts.
An EnvisionUP expert will respond within one business day or less with the next steps.