Encore Study Finds 94% of Websites Block AI Agents
Encore reports that most businesses inadvertently block AI assistants, removing themselves from agent recommendation sets through outdated bot defenses.
Encore published the Agent Readiness Index on October 23 after studying over 1,500 organizations across 25 industries to evaluate how businesses handle personal AI assistants. The findings reveal that 94% of websites cannot accept agent connections, and 26% actively block agents that identify themselves.
The study indicates that traditional bot defenses, including rate limits and CAPTCHAs, now penalize legitimate customers who use AI agents to pay bills or book flights. Because AI agents optimize for successful routes and record failed trajectories, businesses that block these tools are effectively removed from agent recommendation sets without the company receiving any signal of the loss.
Encore argues that companies must transition toward legibility by implementing direct connections and machine-readable rules for agents. The organization suggests that relying on interfaces designed exclusively for humans prevents businesses from integrating with the evolving AI ecosystem.
