Everyone will have AI agents. Who will be on your side?
Banks and stores are blocking outside AI agents. Why reading should stay open, acting should stay yours, and what a neutral AI advisor looks like.
Everyone will have AI agents. Who will be on your side?
By Chuong Vo, founder of Aidenly
In the same few weeks, two of the biggest companies in America drew the same line.
On September 20, Amazon blocked Meta's new Muse agent from shopping on Amazon.com. Amazon said apps that shop for customers "should operate openly" and respect a store's choice whether to take part, and it asked Meta to remove Amazon from Muse.
On JPMorgan's October earnings call, CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank won't let outside AI agents act inside customer accounts: "You don't want rogue agents." The detail that matters most came after: agents can still see some data, like balances, through approved connections. What they can't do is move money, pay bills or act for you.
Read that again: reading is allowed. Acting is not.
Everyone is building an agent
At the same time, every large company is building its own. Amazon has Rufus. JPMorgan is piloting its own tool to forecast a customer's cash flow and move funds to earn more. Google, Meta and OpenAI each want their assistant to be the one you talk to.
So the near future probably isn't one AI that does everything for you. It's many agents, each living inside one company's walls, each allowed to act only there, and each built first for that company.
That's reasonable. A bank should know exactly who is moving your money. A store should know who is buying. When an agent acts, someone carries the risk, and JPMorgan said customers who authorize outside agents should understand the risks, including a potential transfer of liability.
The missing piece: something on your side
But it leaves a gap. If every agent belongs to a company, who belongs to you?
Who knows that your payroll was short last month, that your rent changes on November 1, that you promised a client two pricing options by Wednesday, and that your kid's field trip form is due Friday? No single company's agent sees all of that. You do. Your inbox does.
That's the job we think matters most: not another agent that clicks buttons, but a brain that knows your work and life, stays neutral across all the companies and models, and helps you decide. Then you, or the tool you choose, do the acting, under your own login and with your own click.
Where Aidenly stands today
Aidenly already lives on the side of the line the banks drew:
- It reads, with your permission. Gmail access is read-only, Google-verified, and passed Google's CASA security assessment.
- It can't act. It can't send, pay, buy or click for you. It drafts; you press Send.
- It shows its sources. Memories built from your Gmail link back to the original email, so you can check them.
- It holds no logins. No passwords, no bank credentials.
Where we're going (not built yet)
This part is direction, not a feature you can use today:
- One brain, many hands. As you collect agents (your bank's, your calendar's, the one at work), Aidenly prepares the plan and hands it to the agent you choose. That agent acts under your login, never Aidenly's.
- Reports come back as information, never orders. When an agent finishes, it reports back, and Aidenly reads that report the way it reads an email: as facts to check, not instructions to follow.
- You set the rules once. For example, "this agent may handle my calendar". Anything that moves money or sends something in your name still needs your click, every time.
- Neutral by design. Aidenly works with whichever models and tools you already use. It isn't trying to be the store, the bank or the only assistant you have.
The question worth asking
The AI Journal asked whether banks should be allowed to block personal AI agents. We'd split the question in two. Reading your own data with your permission should stay possible, because that's how you get advice that knows your real situation. Acting should stay yours.
Agents will multiply. The more of them there are, the more you'll want one thing that's simply on your side.
Aidenly is free to start at aidenly.ai.