This is a small story for United’s earnings, but a meaningful signal for the AI monetisation theme. Agentic commerce, where AI tools buy on a user’s behalf, is one of the main ways AI developers hope to turn assistants into revenue. Every large merchant that limits agents to browsing makes that harder. The timing matters, with Nvidia’s results and Anthropic’s market debut both due next week and investors already testing how much AI revenue current valuations assume. If restrictions spread across airlines, retail and banking, merchants with strong direct channels would protect their customer data, pricing power and advertising reach, while AI platforms would be pushed toward partnership deals rather than open access.
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United will let AI agents window-shop but not buy, and if other big merchants follow, the business case for agentic commerce gets a lot harder.
Summary:
- United Airlines will stop personal AI assistants from booking tickets through its systems, The Wall Street Journal (gated) reported
- The airline cited the risk of exposing customer data, unintended purchases, and possible breaches of FAA and Transportation Department rules
- AI agents can still show United’s flights and fares but cannot transact on its website
- CEO Scott Kirby said he does not want to create another middleman
- Delta and American allow some agent bookings, while Amazon has also moved to keep shopping bots away
- Agent volumes remain tiny: Uber said AI agents made just four ride bookings and 500 Eats orders during Halloween week
United Airlines will stop personal AI assistants from booking tickets through its systems, the carrier said on Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. It is the first major US airline to publicly push back against so-called agentic commerce, in which AI tools act on a customer’s behalf rather than just answering questions.
United gave three reasons. Third-party agents could expose customers’ sensitive information. They could make purchases customers did not intend. And automated actions could breach Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department rules on what airlines must show passengers. For example, an AI agent cannot confirm at check-in that a bag contains no explosives. Agents will still be able to display United’s flights and fares, but they will not be able to complete transactions on its website.
There is also a commercial motive. Chief executive Scott Kirby, who has called AI potentially transformational, said on Tuesday that he does not want to create another middleman. Airlines spent years fighting online travel agencies over how their fares were displayed and sold. An AI agent that compares prices and books on a customer’s behalf could weaken the direct relationship carriers have worked hard to win back.
United is not alone. Amazon sued Perplexity in November 2025 to stop its Comet browser agent from shopping on Amazon’s site, and later won a court order that temporarily blocked it. Other airlines are taking a different line. Delta lets authenticated AI assistants complete bookings, with extra safeguards for sensitive trips such as those involving unaccompanied minors. American says some agents can buy tickets through certain partners.
For now the volumes are tiny. United said it is not seeing many bookings from agents. Uber said that over Halloween week, AI agents accounted for just 500 Uber Eats orders and four rides, out of about 320 million trips. The bigger question is what happens if more large merchants follow United and Amazon. AI developers are betting that agents will become a new way to buy things. They include OpenAI, which this week bought travel-booking startup Odessia, and Meta, which says travel planning is a top use for its Muse agent. If major sellers keep agents at the browsing stage, that route to making money from AI gets narrower, and the companies that own the customer relationship keep the upper hand.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.