Amazon planning major AI revamp that will change the search experience

Amazon is gearing up for a significant overhaul that will transform the search experience across both its website and app.

The retail giant is set to roll out upgraded generative AI capabilities that offer a more conversational, detailed, and personalized user experience in the US from January.

Shoppers will be able to use this new technology for real-time product comparisons and to seek additional details, reviews, and recommendations tailored to their search context, reports Business Insider.

Why we care. Advertisers should closely monitor these developments to gauge their impact on ad visibility. Should the changes prove to be as substantial as claimed, digital marketers may need to reassess their campaign strategies accordingly.

A new world. The decision to revamp Amazon, which has been codenamed Project Nile, reportedly comes from new VP Joseph Sirosh, a former Microsoft AI executive. During a company-wide presentation, he told his team:

• “We have a big task ahead of us. We need to orient everyone towards this new world.”

The new Amazon is allegedly already being tested internally with plans for a US roll out in the New Year, however, an insider confirmed these plans could change. The project is a top priority for the company and is being supported by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Why now? Amazon bosses are hoping that building an AI-powered conversational shopping agent will help improve the user experience, helping shoppers to find the products they’re looking for more easily by providing search results, expert answers and product suggestions. The company is hoping this will lead to more sales and a higher ROI – particularly on mobile.

How it works. Amazon’s new generative AI tool will be developed using human AI trainers, who will continuously review the quality of answers the bot provides. Additionally, the tool will have access to proprietary shopping data sourced from Amazon’s extensive product catalog, complemented by user behavior data, and purchase and review information.

What has Amazon said? During a company-wide town hall meeting, Sirosh told Amazon staff that the website’s new AI feature should be seen as a deeply knowledgable in-store salesperson. He said:

• “Before e-commerce, the salesperson in the store was your search engine. And that individual knew everything about the products…they would look at you and know what you might want because customers like you have been to that store before.”
• “They may have known you in person, so may know your preferences, and then they can synthesize all of that information together in natural language conversation with you and help you in your shopping mission. And if you can scale that up to everything in Amazon, that would be the future mission we want to aspire to.”
• “If we can increase the conversion on mobile, because we provide great experiences, great expert answers, then that could be a potentially significant lift to Amazon.”

Deep dive. Read the Amazon Ads blog to catch up on the company’s latest news.