Amazon pilots AI personalization based on customers' pastimes
Amazon’s latest generative AI shopping feature provides recommendations based on the hobbies and activities of customers.
The online giant is currently making the feature, called Amazon Interests, available to a small subset of U.S. customers in its U.S. iOS and Android app and mobile website, with plans to roll it out to all U.S. customers in the coming months.
With Interests, customers can create personalized shopping prompts tailored to their interests, price limits, and preferences, using everyday language. A shopper could give a prompt such as, "Model building kits and accessories for hobbyist engineers and designers, as well as longer, more detailed prompts for specific needs such as home decorative art with particular materials and aesthetic.
Once a customer creates their prompt, Interests continuously scans Amazon’s store and proactively notifies customers about newly available and relevant products, restocks, and deals that align with their interests.
How it works
To use Interests, customers open the Amazon Shopping app and tap the “Me” tab, then tap the “Interests” button. On the Interests page, they then tap the “Get Started” button and enter a detailed description of what they’re looking for.
These descriptive prompts allow Interests to surface the products that best match specific shopping needs. Shoppers can create multiple prompts for different interests and needs.
Once a prompt is created it will auto-save, and customers will see updates when new items matching their prompt are available via the Interests button and widget in the Me tab, as well as via the homepage feed.
On the Interests page, customers can find the Interests prompt they would like and tap the pencil icon to edit their prompt to better describe the products you are looking for.
Interests is based on generative AI and uses large language models (LLMs) to automatically translate everyday language into queries and attributes that traditional search engines can process and turn into product recommendations.
Interest is the latest generative AI capability Amazon has launched to streamline its shopping experience while increasing personalization. Other examples include AI shopping guides that consolidate key information customers need with a relevant selection of products; and Rufus, an expert shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&A, and information from across the web to answer customer questions on topics such as shopping needs, product and comparisons; make recommendations based on conversational context; and facilitate product discovery within the mainstream Amazon shopping experience.
[READ MORE: Amazon releases mobile generative AI shopping assistant]
