Dive Brief:
- Amazon now allows customers to ask AI hosts questions via text or voice while listening to an audio summary of a product, the e-commerce company announced last week.
- The Join the Chat feature within Hear the Highlights moves customers “from listening to participating,” per the announcement. AI hosts can take questions in real time and then resume the audio summary after answering.
- When shoppers ask a question, the tool will respond with a tailored response using product information, customer reviews and other information before continuing, Rajiv Mehta, vice president of conversational shopping at Amazon, wrote in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
Amazon’s latest AI feature, Join the Chat, is aimed at giving shoppers a more customized experience and is capable of understanding the context surrounding questions.
“The AI hosts don’t offer a generic answer — they consider what’s already been covered and respond with new, relevant information,” Mehta wrote. “Customers aren’t interrupting the experience —they’re part of it.”
The feature is part of Hear the Highlights, which was first introduced a year ago and gives short-form audio product summaries on millions of product pages. Each summary starts with an AI-generated script and when a question is asked, the script adapts in real time.
“This approach creates something different: an experience that is both informative and adaptive,” Mehta said. “Customers can ask questions and actually steer where the conversation goes. Every question they ask influences what comes next, making the experience a conversation customers can join and customize.”
Along with its Join the Chat feature, Amazon has deployed AI in other ways to help shoppers quickly cut through the noise of reviews and product descriptions to find the right items. In 2023, Amazon began using generative AI to synthesize customer reviews from verified purchases.
Beyond aggregating product information, Amazon has leaned on AI to provide product recommendations. About a year ago, the retailer debuted its Interests feature, enabling some of its U.S. app and mobile users to enter custom prompts and find products based on their hobbies and passions.
In addition to using AI to help customers navigate a myriad of products, Amazon has also harnessed AI to help sellers write their product descriptions. In 2023, the retailer began using AI to let sellers create product descriptions with titles, product details and bullet point lists. That same month, eBay made a similar move by launching its “magical listing” tool, which generates product listings by detecting details from images.
