AI agents just got denied boarding at United Airlines (UAL).
Ahead of holiday travel, the airline company is cracking down on third-party artificial intelligence agents as more consumers turn to AI tools.
“To be honest, I don’t want to create another middleman,” United CEO Scott Kirby told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
AI agents function as personal assistants for tasks such as scheduling, shopping, and research. Unlike conventional chatbots, they operate autonomously and are capable of completing transactions independently.
The airline is not the only company to try to limit agentic AI from using its platform. In September, Amazon (AMZN) blocked Meta’s (META) Muse AI agent from shopping on its site.
Other airlines, however, have taken a different tack. In October, Southwest Airlines (LUV) launched a ChatGPT plugin that allows travelers to search the carrier’s flights and fares.
United traded slightly down Wednesday afternoon. Meta (META) stock also declined.
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United Airlines said in a press release that it fears that AI agents could expose sensitive information as well as potentially violate Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation rules.
At the same time, airlines have recently found themselves in hot water over AI-powered surveillance pricing. In October, the Federal Trade Commission ordered United Airlines, Delta Air Lines (DAL), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), and six other major carriers to turn over information on how AI tools influence individual fare pricing and how customer data is used.
Relatedly, many people feel that AI offers inadequate customer service. A new “Consumer Patience Index” poll found that when ranking frustrating support experiences, customers rated “talking to a bot that doesn’t understand me” as the biggest pain point, and 61.2% say they have yelled at automation in order to be 
routed to a human faster.