Why Amazon Blocked the AI Agent 'Muse', a Seismic Shift in the Commerce Market

As AI agent technology advances, the revenue models and customer touchpoints of existing e-commerce giants are being fundamentally shaken. According to an analysis by Kang Jung-soo, director of BlueDot AI Research Institute, reported by T Times TV, the recent emergence of the AI agent 'Muse' is acting as a new threat to massive commerce companies such as Amazon.

"Annoying customers who don't make impulse purchases"... The background of why Amazon rejected Muse

The background of Amazon blocking the AI agent service Muse lies in the changes to the 'customer touchpoint' and 'revenue structure,' which are the core of the commerce business. Director Kang Jung-soo pointed out that, unlike human customers, agents can change the very starting point of shopping. This is because the moment a user gives a command to an AI agent, the initiative of shopping shifts to the agent, rather than the user opening the Amazon app to buy something.

In terms of revenue models, agents also possess characteristics that are disadvantageous to existing commerce companies. While human customers browse various products during the shopping process and make impulse purchases or consume advertisements, AI agents efficiently purchase only the exact single product the user wants and then leave. This means that 'up-selling,' which induces additional sales, is impossible, directly contradicting the strategies of existing platforms aiming for advertising revenue and sales increases.

In particular, companies like Amazon optimize logistics and delivery costs through economies of scale, but with the emergence of agents, there is a risk that if the scale of sales decreases, inventory management and logistics efficiency could drop sharply. Kang emphasized that if sales fall below a certain level, it could become a significant burden to maintain the existing logistics infrastructure.

The combination of Shopify and Walmart, a reorganizing commerce ecosystem

While Amazon takes a defensive stance, Walmart and Shopify are finding new breakthroughs through cooperation with AI agents. Shopify is actively cooperating with AI agents based on its own mall solution and is pursuing a strategy of integrating even payment systems. This is developing in a direction to enhance the competitiveness of its own mall by combining with simple payment systems in the United States, such as Stripe.

In fact, Walmart achieved a 10% increase in its own mall sales during this Christmas season. Kang analyzed that in order to check the number one company, Amazon, a 'vertical alliance' could occur where the second and third place companies join hands with agents. This trend extends beyond simple shopping into the travel sector. This is because AI agents can perform the complex data connection and reservation management tasks that reservation platforms like Expedia or Booking.com used to perform.

Variables in the South Korean market, the 'Super App' re-war between Naver and Coupang

A seismic shift is also expected in the South Korean e-commerce market due to the entry of AI agents. Kang predicted that in the case of the South Korean market, whether the payment system is integrated will be the variable. Naver possesses vast user data, providing favorable conditions to build agent services, and is highly likely to compete with rivals such as Coupang through this.

Coupang's moves are also a key point to watch. Whether the victory or defeat in the South Korean market will be decided depends on whether Coupang secures agent technology internally or cooperates with external agents. Kakao currently has a limited presence in commerce, but if it implements an agent service that connects to external commerce through the powerful platform KakaoTalk, it could face new opportunities.

Ultimately, AI agents will attempt to perform the role of 'super apps' in all areas that can save human time and cost, such as finance, travel, and commerce. Kang predicted that when agents perform the role of secretaries that prevent human errors and manage daily life, users' lives will fundamentally change.

Source: original video (YouTube)