Amazon Unveils New Generative AI Tools to Revolutionize Shopping Experience

Amazon has unveiled a suite of new generative AI tools aimed at enhancing the retail experience for both shoppers and sellers on its platform. The announcement was made at the Amazon Accelerate event, highlighting a range of features designed to personalize and streamline online shopping.

One of the standout features is a personalized product recommendation system that leverages customer preferences, search history, browsing patterns, and purchase history. This system seeks to go beyond Amazon's existing 'more like this' feature by offering broader category suggestions tailored to individual shopping habits, such as seasonal events or specific activities like sports.

Another significant improvement is the inclusion of more relevant product descriptions that align with user interests. For example, if a user habitually searches for gluten-free items, terms like 'gluten-free' will be prominently displayed in product descriptions to make the search process more intuitive and efficient.

To aid third-party sellers on the platform, Amazon is rolling out several new tools. Among these is a free video generator tool that uses a product’s image and features to produce AI-generated marketing videos. Amazon cites a study by animated video firm Wyzowl, which found that 89 percent of consumers want to see more videos from brands, as a key reason for this addition.

A 'live image' feature is also being added to Amazon's existing image generator tool, allowing for partial animation of still images. This can bring static images to life by adding elements like steam to a cup of coffee or a breeze blowing through plant leaves. Both the live image feature and the new video generator are currently available in beta to select US advertisers.

Amazon is also launching 'Project Amelia,' a chatbot designed to provide personalized recommendations, insights, and troubleshooting assistance to third-party sellers. The chatbot can summarize sales data, analyze website traffic, and offer year-over-year performance comparisons, thereby helping businesses optimize their operations. Although the chatbot is currently in beta with a small group of US retailers, it is expected to roll out more broadly in the coming weeks and to additional countries later in the year.

These updates mark a significant leap for Amazon in the generative AI space, a field where it has trailed behind giants like Meta and Google. According to Reuters, Amazon plans to integrate Anthropic’s Claude AI into future Alexa updates, aiming to improve its language comprehension and responsiveness, a functionality that its own AWS models have struggled with.