Amazon CEO Andy Jassy will speak at the Amazon Devices Launch event held in New York City, USA on February 26, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Amazonto inject generative artificial intelligence into a wider band of the e-commerce universe, we recently began testing health-centric chatbots with subsets of users and shopping assistants.
AI has become a major investment area across Amazon, including retail, cloud computing, devices and healthcare businesses. In retail, Amazon has already launched a Shopping Chatbot, the seller and AI assistant to AI Shopping Guide.
New services that Amazon is testing have appeared on apps or websites in recent weeks. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the feature was being tested in beta with some customers.
Shopping tools called AI of Interest encourage users to “use their own words” to describe their interests, then create a choice of curated products. This feature allows consumers to browse products using more conversational languages, separate from the main search bar on Amazon’s website.
Amazon’s Interest AI feature allows users to enter more conversational search queries
Amazon
Within the core app, Amazon has a feature landing page.
“Explain your interests such as “Coffee Brewing Gadgets” and “Newest Pickleball Accessories.” You can find related products,” the page says. Other proposed searches include “Children’s Books on Survival and Dealing with Failure” and “Non-difficult, Brain Teasers Made of Wood and Metal.”
An Amazon spokesperson said that using a language model with a high interest rate, translates everyday words and phrases into queries and attributes that traditional search engines can turn into product recommendations. It is unclear which models’ interests depend on.
After the publication of this article, Amazon said in a blog post it hopes to make the feature available to all US users in the coming months.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month that employees have built or are building around 1,000 generation AI applications across the company. Cloud Unit offers a chatbot for businesses called Q. At Commerce, the company offers services for consumers and its millions of third-party sellers.
Amazon is also exploring ways that artificial intelligence can address medical needs. The company is testing its chatbots on a website and mobile app called “Health AI” that can answer health and wellness questions, and “provides products with common care options for healthcare needs.
While Rufus, Amazon’s shopping chatbot, can suggest products like Ice Packs and Ibuprofen, Health AI goes even further, providing users with medical guidance and care tips, including how to deal with colds and flu. The site says the service cannot provide personalized medical advice.
Some answers feature a “clinically validated” badge. This shows information “reviewed by licensed clinicians in the United States.”
Health AI also led users to Amazon’s online pharmacies, in addition to the clinical services provided by a single healthcare provider, which was acquired in 2022 for around $3.9 billion.
Amazon recently began testing health-related AI assistants that provide medical guidance and can propose products.
Amazon
An Amazon spokesperson said its health assistants use Bedrock. Bedrock has launched a service that allows Amazon’s cloud units to access AI models from companies and third parties.
“We are gathering feedback from our customers and have plans to introduce new features to improve our future experience,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
With more consumers embracing generative AI as a shopping tool, and features such as Health AI and AI Interests Amazon hopes shoppers can use their own services over their rivals, such as Openai’s ChatGpt.
With plenty of use, Amazon is preparing to overhaul Alexa, a digital assistant that launched over a decade ago, giving us valuable insight into how people interact with AI assistants.
Amazon announced Alexa+, a new version of the technology with embedded generator AI embedded at the end of last month. The company says that Alexa+, which has not yet been deployed, can handle more complex tasks and act as an “agent” by performing actions for users without direct involvement.
Andrew Bell, Amazon e-commerce manager at the National Fire Prevention Association, publishing Amazon patent applications and research into AI development, came across new shopping and health features and recently posted on LinkedIn.
In an interview, Bell said that Alexa+ could potentially utilize models developed for Amazon applications such as Health AI to answer queries.
“If you have health-related questions, Alexa+ may call health AI,” Bell said. “If you have a product-related question, Alexa+ can call Rufus.”
