There’s no question that Amazon -- still the largest online retailer by a wide margin -- has continually been on the leading edge of using technology to drive its business. So it’s not a surprise that it is first in using AI in new ways to find out more about what its customers are shopping for and then providing exactly what that is.
In a limited program it rolled out earlier this year it is testing Amazon Interests, a new initiative that allows customers to make personalized shopping lists based on their interests, spending and preferences using everyday language. According to one review of the program, a consumer might provide a prompt like "Model building kits and accessories for hobbyist engineers and designers,” or even something longer and more involved with detailed preferences on things like materials and style.
Amazon would then continuously use AI to see what it carried that meets those criteria, alerting the consumer as it finds things of interest. It would also call up deals, new introductions and items that have come back in stock. Shoppers can create multiple lists and can edit them as well. All of this can be managed on Amazon’s website and its mobile apps for both Apple and Android mobile devices.
Current shoppers who have access to Interests will find it on their home pages and Amazon said it plans to roll it out to all U.S. customers in the coming months. It’s the latest tool the company has used to anticipate what its customers are looking for, going back to its original prompts and even hardware devices like Dash buttons it tried for high-frequency purchases like detergent.
But now with AI, the possibilities appear to be endless, which for a company that invented the “endless aisle” seems to be right up its shopping alley.