Your next customer might not be a person clicking around your website. It might be an AI assistant doing the clicking for them. On Wednesday, United Airlines said it won't let those assistants book flights anymore. Most small businesses aren't United, and for a lot of you, an AI that books an appointment or asks for a quote is a customer you want. But United's move raises a fair question every business owner should answer: what should an AI agent be allowed to do on your website? Here's what happened, in plain English, and what I'd do.
What happened
On November 11, United announced it is restricting unauthorized third-party AI agents, both on its own website and app and indirectly through travel agencies and booking sites. These are the personal AI assistants that can search, book and buy for you once you hand them access.
United gave two reasons. First, sharing account logins with an AI assistant can expose sensitive information, and the assistant might make purchases, change an account or spend miles the customer didn't intend. Second, some steps legally need a human. Check-in, for example, requires a person to confirm their bags don't contain banned items like explosives.
AI tools can still show people United flights. They just can't complete the booking. United's CEO, Scott Kirby, was blunter about the business side: "To be honest, I don't want to create another middleman." The Verge notes United hasn't actually seen many people try to book this way yet.
Two details in United's FAQ stood out to me. Using AI to research and plan trips is still fine as long as the tool doesn't log in to United's site. And assistive technology for customers with disabilities isn't affected.
United isn't alone, and not everyone agrees
Big companies are splitting on this. Amazon has blocked Meta's AI agent, while Walmart has partnered with it, and travel sites like Expedia and Booking are working with OpenAI. JPMorgan Chase also blocks agents from its products, while Southwest went the other way and created a plugin so customers can book flights with ChatGPT.
Why this matters for your business
You probably don't have a frequent-flyer program or federal check-in rules. But you might have an online booking calendar, a quote form, a shopping cart or customer accounts. AI assistants are getting better at filling those out for people. That can be great: a busy homeowner tells an assistant to "book a furnace tune-up next week," and it lands on your calendar.
It can also go sideways. An assistant can book the wrong day, order the wrong size or fill your inbox with fake-looking requests. The answer usually isn't "block everything" or "allow everything." It's deciding where a human needs to say yes.
What I'd do this month
- Find out if AI agents are already visiting. Many security services can show you this. Cloudflare, for example, now sorts bots by what they do, including AI agents acting for a person and bots that complete checkouts, and offers ready-made AI agent settings on all plans. Ask your host or developer what your site sees.
- Sort your pages into three buckets. Information pages like services, hours and prices should be open to everyone, including AI. Booking and quote forms are usually fine for agents, with a confirmation step. Logins, payments, refunds and account changes are where I'd want a human.
- Add a human checkpoint where money or commitments are involved. A confirmation email or text before an appointment is final, or a "yes, charge my card" step on deposits, protects you and the customer no matter who filled out the form.
- Don't block the good bots by accident. A blanket "block all AI" setting can make you invisible in AI answers. OpenAI, for example, lets you allow its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, while saying no to training with GPTBot. Those are separate choices.
- Keep accessibility tools working. If you tighten bot rules, test your forms with a keyboard and a screen reader afterward. United carved out assistive technology on purpose, and so should you.
- Make your key facts easy to read. Put hours, service area and starting prices in plain text, not just inside images or PDFs. That helps people, Google and any AI doing research for a customer.
If you haven't claimed your listing yet, our guide to Businesses in ChatGPT covers the other side of this: how to show up correctly when AI is doing the research.
If you're lost, we can help
If you're not sure what's visiting your website, or which pages should welcome AI and which should need a human, that's normal. This is brand new for everyone. HDM has been building and caring for websites out of Springboro, Ohio for 20 years. Send us a request and we'll look at your forms, bot settings and booking flow and tell you plainly what we find, or call us at (513) 668-7344.
