Amazon is beginning to test new AI shopping agents, a feature called “buying” with subset users. The company announced in a blog post Thursday.
If Amazon is not selling what users are searching for, the Buy For Me feature will display the product to users sold by other websites. Users can then request that they select and purchase one of these products without leaving the Amazon Shopping app.
Amazon is the latest company to announce AI shopping agents and participates in companies such as Openai, Google, and Prplexity. All of these showcase similar agents that users can visit the website and purchase. Amazon is already the go-to platform for most people for what they want to buy online, but by purchasing for me, Amazon has now gained even more e-commerce businesses than it is today.
Behind the scenes, Amazon’s AI shopping agents visit external websites, select the product they request, fill in the user’s name, shipping address, and payment details, according to Amazon.
According to Amazon, the new agent shopping feature will feature an Amazon Nova AI model in addition to Anthropic’s Claude. One of these models is the Nova Act, an AI agent Amazon that can be used autonomously by the AI agent Amazon, announced earlier this week.
In the aforementioned blog post I’m buying for me, Amazon said I’m using encryption to “securely” inserting billing information into third-party sites. This is a unique approach compared to Openai and Google agents, and humans need to fill out their credit card information themselves. You also need a Perplexity AI agent with a prepaid debit card to purchase.
Passing credit card information to AI can result in serious pauses for some users as hallucinations and mistakes are prone to occur. In TechCrunch’s experience, AI shopping agents often take a long time to process requests, often getting stuck somewhere along the line.
Amazon basically asks users to trust that agents, for example, don’t accidentally buy 1,000 pairs of socks instead of 10. They also want to accept less control over the shopping experience. If a customer needs to return or exchange an order, when they purchase, they will purchase it in the digital storefront purchased by the AI agent.
How many people do you want to think of immediately?
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