It looks like Perplexity is in some trouble with Amazon. Amazon sued Perplexity AI on Tuesday over the startup’s “agentic” shopping feature, which uses automation to place orders for users, alleging it covertly accessed Amazon customer accounts and disguised automated activity as human browsing.
Perplexity’s “agentic” shopping feature is a new AI-powered capability that allows users to search for products, compare options, and potentially complete purchases directly within the chat interface for supported merchants in the U.S. using PayPal or Venmo, with rollout ongoing in 2025.
Unlike traditional shopping tools that provide links or recommendations, this feature acts more like a personal shopping assistant, handling multiple steps of the buying process. Users can ask for products based on criteria such as price, reviews, or features, and Perplexity generates relevant options with details like pros, cons, and pricing. Checkout is integrated through partnerships with PayPal and Venmo, enabling streamlined payment and shipping where supported, though availability is region- and merchant-dependent. Merchants can connect via low-friction integrations, allowing them to retain customer relationships while reaching buyers through Perplexity’s interface.
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This approach streamlines online shopping, reduces friction, and enhances convenience by letting the AI handle both discovery and some transactional steps in supported scenarios. Overall, it represents a shift toward “agentic commerce,” where AI actively performs tasks instead of just offering guidance.
In the suit, Amazon accused Perplexity of covertly accessing private Amazon customer accounts through its Comet browser and associated AI agent, and of disguising automated activity as human browsing.
“Rather than be transparent, Perplexity has purposely configured its CometAI software to not identify the Comet AI agent’s activities in the Amazon Store,” Amazon said.
“Perplexity’s misconduct must end,” the company added. “Perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot; that Perplexity’s trespass involves code rather than a lockpick makes it no less unlawful.”
Earlier, Perplexity said it had received a legal threat from Amazon demanding that it block the Comet AI agent from shopping on the platform, calling the move a broader threat to user choice and the future of AI assistants.
“Bullying is when large corporations use legal threats and intimidation to block innovation and make life worse for people,” the company wrote in a blog post.
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For Perplexity, this case is a test of its ability to scale agentic commerce responsibly while maintaining trust with users and partners. For Amazon and other e-commerce companies, it raises questions about how to balance openness to emerging technologies with protecting customer data, preventing unauthorized automation, and preserving the integrity of their platforms. More broadly, the dispute signals that as AI increasingly performs actions on behalf of users, regulatory, legal, and ethical frameworks will need to evolve rapidly. The outcome could set precedents for how AI assistants operate in commercial ecosystems, influencing both innovation and the boundaries of responsible AI.
For Amazon, the case reflects a broader effort by large platforms to maintain control over their systems and protect user accounts from automated access that bypasses established safeguards. The clash also illustrates the evolving balance between innovation and regulation in AI-driven services, emphasizing how emerging technologies must align with legal, ethical, and platform-specific standards to scale safely.
It signals potential ripple effects for other AI assistants aiming to interact directly with commercial platforms, though specific operational details, like full integration with payment services, may not yet be publicly confirmed.