Amazon's updated seller agreement, effective March 4, now allows Amazon to immediately disable any AI or automated tools on its platform without an appeal process. This move coincides with Amazon's $50 billion investment in OpenAI and its development of an agentic Seller Assistant, signaling tighter control over AI use in its marketplace.
Similarly, eBay banned all third-party AI shopping agents as of February 20, prohibiting buy-for-me agents and LLM-driven bots that place orders without human review. eBay is also developing its own AI shopping agent.
OpenAI's ChatGPT has reached 900 million weekly active users who can purchase products without visiting traditional marketplaces. These developments illustrate a shared strategy among Amazon, eBay, and OpenAI: block outside AI tools while building proprietary AI agents.
The core competition is to become the AI layer connecting brands and buyers, as controlling AI agents means controlling product discovery, which is more valuable than the transaction itself. Amazon, after two decades of sellers optimizing for its search algorithm, is now investing heavily in AI that could bypass traditional search, shifting the focus from search optimization to appearing in AI-driven shopping experiences.
