Attention, Amazon.com Inc. shoppers: Another artificial intelligence (AI) feature is on its way.
Called Interests, it helps consumers find “new products that match” their hobbies and particular passions — the latest in a series of consumer-focused AI features the company has introduced this year, and before that.
“With Interests, you can create personalized shopping prompts tailored to your interests, price limits, and preferences, from mainstream to niche, using everyday language,” Daniel Lloyd, vice president of personalization at Amazon, wrote in a blog post Wednesday.
In one example shared by Lloyd, he outlined a request for specific wall art: “I’m looking for wall art to decorate my home. I want something abstract or modern made of black metal, not canvas. Maybe a geometric design, minimalist piece. I’m into industrial-style decor that makes a statement — nothing too traditional or painted.”
Here’s how it works: Interests requires shoppers to enter a natural language overview of the products they wish to purchase, as well as pricing preferences and suggested deals. Shoppers can be precise with a specific item, such as the aforementioned artwork, or a broad category like “computer peripherals.”
Once the product query is made, Interests generates alerts for new and out-of-stock products that meet the specific criteria when they become available on Amazon.
Interests is available to limited customers in the company’s U.S. app and mobile website (iOS and Android); everyone else in the U.S. will be able to use Interests in coming months, according to Lloyd.
In conjunction with Interests, Amazon introduced Health AI, a feature that answers health and wellness questions as well as recommends relevant products.
This week’s AI announcements build on an Amazon release earlier this year, as well as several before that. In February, it introduced Rufus, a new chatbot that helps online shoppers browse products and decide which ones to buy.
In late 2023, Amazon unveiled AI tools for merchants and consumers. A new set of generative AI capabilities, launched in September 2023, simplifies how Amazon sellers create “more thorough and captivating product descriptions, titles, and listing details,” the company said in a blog post.
A month earlier, in August 2023, Amazon launched another GenAI feature — this time for shoppers. It provides an AI-generated, one-paragraph summary of reviews for a product. In a blog post then, Vaughn Schermerhorn, director of community shopping at Amazon, said Amazon has a team dedicated to preventing fake reviews from appearing below product listings.
