doordash_problem.md

• “DoorDash problem” defined: AI agents sit between users and service providers, stripping away monetizable layers like ads, reviews, loyalty, and upsells, reducing platforms to commodity backends.

• Threat to App-era companies: Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, DoorDash, TaskRabbit, ZocDoc risk losing direct customer relationships that fund their business models.

• AI agents don’t care about monetization: They choose cheapest/fastest options, bypassing differentiation, brand, and promotional economics.

• Service-provider dilemma: Continue supporting agentic access and risk commoditization, or block agents and risk losing customers.

• Amazon vs Perplexity lawsuit: First major clash; Amazon argues Perplexity violated ToS, masked bots as humans, and circumvented blocks.

• High stakes for Amazon:

  • Massive ad business ($60B+) threatened by agentic shopping that hides ads.
  • Prime’s stickiness weakened if AI agents shop anywhere automatically.
  • Amazon retail already commoditized; easy for agents to replace.

• Why Amazon fights hardest: It has the most to lose and the weakest moat in an agent-first world.

• Perplexity’s stance:

  • Claims Amazon is “bullying” innovation.
  • Argues user agents = users; agents should access any site on users’ behalf.
  • Positions itself as fighting for an open, agentic internet.

• Industry responses:

  • Most CEOs (Lyft, ZocDoc, TaskRabbit) feel confident due to strong brands, deep operational moats, or unique supply networks.
  • Uber acknowledges the threat but plans to work with agents and build its own.
  • Google/Microsoft emphasize business-model alignment; agentic web must make economic sense for all sides.
  • Airbnb rejects “AI maximalist” vision; companies won’t accept becoming mere data layers.

• Underlying tension: If agents abstract away interfaces, the economics that fund these services collapse.

• Core brittleness: AI depends on the very companies it may undermine (databases, logistics, fulfillment).

• Perplexity’s provocation: Continues pushing boundaries; frames “software as labor”; refuses to seek permission.

• Legal and economic unknowns: Courts must decide if AI agents can access websites like users; precedent could reshape the web.

• Ultimate risk: Without sustainable monetization and real-world labor (drivers, couriers, taskers), agentic systems collapse—no one left to deliver the sandwiches.