Amazon testing shopping, health assistants, pushes into generative AI

Amazon, in an effort to infuse generative artificial intelligence across a wider swath of its e-commerce universe, recently began testing a shopping assistant and a health-focused chatbot with a subset of users.

AI has become a major area of investment across Amazon, including in its retail, cloud computing, devices and health-care businesses. Within the retail business, Amazon has already launched a shopping chatbot, an AI assistant for sellers and AI shopping guides.

The new services Amazon is testing appeared on its app or website in recent weeks. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the features are being tested in beta with some customers.

The shopping tool, called Interests AI, prompts users to describe an interest “using your own words,” and then it generates a curated selection of products. The feature lets consumers browse for products using more conversational language and is separate from the main search bar on Amazon’s website.

Within its core app, Amazon has a landing page for the feature.

“Describe your interest, like ‘coffee brewing gadgets’ or ‘latest pickleball accessories’ — and we’ll find relevant products for you,” the page says. Other suggested searches include “children books about persistence and dealing with failure,” and “brain teasers that are not too hard, made out of wood or metal.”

The Amazon spokesperson said Interests uses large language models to translate everyday words or phrases into queries and attributes that traditional search engines can turn into product recommendations. It’s unclear what models Interests relies on.

Amazon said in a blog post after publication of this article that it expects to make the feature available to all U.S. users in the coming months.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month that employees have built or are in the process of building roughly 1,000 generative AI applications across the company. Its cloud unit offers a chatbot for businesses, called Q. In commerce, the company has rolled out services for consumers as well as its millions of third-party sellers.

Amazon is also exploring ways that artificial intelligence can address medical needs. The company is testing a chatbot on its website and mobile app called “Health AI,” which can answer health and wellness questions, “provide common care options for health care needs,” and suggest products.

While Rufus, Amazon’s shopping chatbot, can suggest products like ice packs and ibuprofen, Health AI goes further, providing users with medical guidance and care tips, such as how to deal with cold symptoms or the flu. The site says the service can’t provide personalized medical advice.

Some responses feature a “clinically verified” badge, which denotes information that’s been “reviewed by US-based licensed clinicians,” Amazon says.

Health AI also steers users to Amazon’s online pharmacy, along with clinical services offered by One Medical, the primary care provider it acquired for roughly $3.9 billion in 2022.

Amazon’s spokesperson said the health assistant uses Bedrock, a service launched by Amazon’s cloud unit that accesses AI models from the company and third parties.

“We are collecting feedback from customers, and plan to introduce new features to enhance the experience in the future,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

More consumers are embracing generative AI as a shopping tool, and with features like Health AI and Interests AI, Amazon wants shoppers to use its own services over rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

With enough use, Amazon could gain valuable insights on the ways that people are interacting with AI assistants as the company prepares to overhaul Alexa, the digital assistant it launched more than a decade ago.

Amazon announced Alexa+, a new version of the technology embedded with generative AI, late last month. The company says that Alexa+, which has yet to roll out, is capable of handling more complex tasks and can serve as an “agent” by taking actions for users without their direct involvement.

Andrew Bell, an Amazon e-commerce manager for the National Fire Protection Association who also publishes research on Amazon’s patent filings and AI development, came across the new shopping and health features and recently posted about them on LinkedIn.

Bell said in an interview that Alexa+ could potentially draw upon models developed for Amazon applications like Health AI to answer queries.

“If there’s a health-related question, Alexa+ is going to maybe call on Health AI,” Bell said. “If there’s a product-related question, Alexa+ can call on Rufus.”