Amazon Leverages AI for Its New Shopping Assistant

• Generative AI
• AI Tool
• Amazon

A new development in the world of e-commerce has emerged as Amazon has introduced an AI-powered shopping assistant. This marks Amazon's initial move in the ongoing AI arms race. The feature is designed to provide customers with AI-generated responses to their product-related queries, revolutionizing the shopping experience on the platform.

"The future of e-commerce is AI. Amazon's new AI-powered shopping assistant is just beginning a new era."

AI-Powered Shopping Assistant

Amazon's new feature, the section "Looking for specific info?" on a product page, previously allowed customers to search reviews and submit questions for sellers or other customers to answer. However, the section is now powered by artificial intelligence on Amazon's iPhone and Android apps. By leveraging a large language model (LLM), the AI shopping assistant provides detailed product information and reviews, answering practically any conceivable question.

For instance, when viewing a sports shirt, customers can ask, "Is this shirt good for running?" or "Does it fit someone 6'7" tall?" The AI assistant responds with a text answer specific to the question asked, replacing the need for customers to read through individual reviews by summarizing relevant information.

Limitations and Potential Improvements

However, the AI assistant does have its limitations. For example, it is restricted to one product and refuses to compare or suggest alternatives. It also doesn't perform any actions, such as adding products to the shopping cart or providing helpful information like price history. There are instances where it can give inaccurate information about a product or decline to answer basic questions.

Despite these limitations, the AI assistant has some unexpected capabilities. It can display product details in JSON code, generate Python code for manipulation, or even crack a joke about the product. It also has multilingual capabilities, responding to queries posed in any language.

Amazon's AI shopping assistant is still experimental, with more improvements anticipated. The next step in its development could involve the ability to buy or save items to a wish list. The final goal is to leverage AI across the entire Amazon catalog, not just for individual products.