Optimizing the Internet for AI Is Actually Hurting Everyone

Personal AI agents are flooding onto the web. Personal AI assistants like OpenAI's 'Dots' and Meta's 'Muse' are shaking up the existing order of an internet built for humans. AI agents are programs that browse the web and handle tasks on behalf of users.

Writing in a piece dated October 19, 2026, James O'Donnell pointed out that the web is fundamentally a space designed for people, and that websites have long applied access rules to bots performing automated tasks. At times, even humans have had to prove they weren't bots by solving CAPTCHAs.

Meta's AI agent app 'Muse' recorded 5 million downloads in its first month, and agentic web traffic tripled between August and September, showing how quickly the influx of AI agents is growing. Most of that agentic web traffic was found to be headed to e-commerce sites. Allowing AI agents to shop on behalf of real people opens up new revenue opportunities for platforms.

TechCrunch reported that users had difficulty using agents on websites ranging from Pizza Hut to Yelp. Since Yelp does not allow AI-driven restaurant reservations, the clash between the human-centered web and AI agents looks set to continue for the time being.