Amazon Debuts AI Shopping Guide After Prime Day

Amazon kicked off its AI effort to streamline the customer experience in February 2024 with its AI shopping assistant, Rufus.

Similar to ChatGPT, but for shopping, Rufus was designed to guide users through their product searches, suggesting items based on preferences and past behaviour. This marked Amazon’s first significant leap into AI-assisted shopping.

Building on that momentum, Amazon introduced other AI features across its other products like Maestro, a playlist generator in April, and AI-powered search in Fire TV in May, further integrating AI into every facet of its ecosystem.

Now, Amazon is taking AI-driven shopping a step further with the debut of its new “AI Shopping Guide” feature.

Set to launch today, October 10, 2024, this latest tool, according to Amazon is designed to assist shoppers with detailed, informative recommendations across more than 100 product categories, ranging from TVs and running shoes to skincare and dog food.

By tapping into the growing demand for smarter, faster decision-making, Amazon’s AI Shopping Guides aim to consolidate all the critical information a consumer might need—brand leaders, technical specs, and even customer insights—right on the product page, unlike the shopping assistant which uses a different interface.

The timing of this launch is curious, as it comes just after Amazon's Prime Day, its biggest shopping event. It’s unclear why Amazon chose not to release the feature during the sale, as it could have helped overwhelmed shoppers make faster, more confident decisions during the busy shopping period.

Still, the AI Shopping Guide is expected to enhance the post-Prime Day shopping experience by reducing the time it takes to research products, surfacing “educational content,” as Amazon calls it, to help shoppers make informed decisions quickly. For instance, if you're searching for running shoes, the guide will offer a concise summary of top brands, key features, and user reviews, saving you from hours of comparison shopping.

Under the hood, the AI Shopping Guide is powered by Amazon’s Bedrock platform, a language model that analyzes customer reviews, product attributes, and brand trends. This information is constantly updated to reflect new products and changing trends, ensuring users always have access to the most up-to-date data.

Accessing the AI Shopping Guides is straightforward. If you're searching for a supported product, the guide will appear in the search autocomplete suggestions. Alternatively, you can access the guides through the “Keep Shopping For” card on Amazon’s homepage.

The retailer noted that the feature will initially be available to U.S.-based shoppers on iOS, Android, and Amazon’s website, with plans to expand beyond the initial 100 product categories in the coming months. Although Amazon hasn’t confirmed when the feature will be available in other languages or regions, it's clear that AI-driven shopping is central to Amazon's future plans.