The RealReal says it has made shopping harder for AI agents
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The RealReal says it updated its bot defense system after The Verge showed that Meta Muse could continuously re-add listings to a shopping cart when the 20-minute hold expired, preventing other customers from buying the items for hours or longer. Luke Friang, the retailer’s chief technology officer, said it is now much harder for agents to log in, add items to carts, and check out; agents will still be able to surface listings and direct users to product pages.
Meta said on its third-quarter earnings call that shopping was Muse’s most common use case so far, with purchases averaging more than $200, and said 10 million people in the US had downloaded the app in 40 days. The case illustrates how AI agents can strain reservation systems and push retailers to restrict automated shopping.
Why it matters · editorial interpretation
The case suggests that using agents for shopping may require separating product discovery from actions that reserve inventory. For consumers, the convenience promised by these agents may depend on each retailer’s rules and defenses.
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