Amazon is looking to join the chatbot frenzy and integrate an AI personality into its software. Bloomberg reports that the company has new job listings which describe how it is “reimagining Amazon Search” with a new “interactive conversational experience that helps you find answers to product questions, perform product comparisons, receive personalized product suggestions and more”. Amazon is making a big deal about this in its job listings, claiming that it will be a once-in-a-generation transformation for Search and that it wants to “deliver this vision to our customers right away”.
It is not surprising that Amazon is looking to update its search function so quickly, as the explosion of AI-powered chatbots has prompted a scramble of tech companies trying to catch up. Google Bard, Snapchat AI, and Microsoft’s Bing Chat are some examples of this mad dash to keep up with the latest AI technology.
It is still unclear what the actual experience will look like or when we can expect it, but it could be the thing that solidifies Amazon’s place as the online shopping superstar. This could turn the experience into a personal shopper, filtering out all the other junk you may find on the site when you’re looking for something specific, or even just helping you quickly find the cheapest option. However, having an AI study and making sure products you might want suspiciously show up on your Amazon homepage could be unsettling for some users.
Overall, it seems that conversational shopping is coming to Amazon one way or another. Customers should be prepared for the site to become a lot more chatty, whether it produces more impulse buys or provides a more personalized shopping experience. Amazon’s move towards AI-powered chatbots is just another example of how the technology industry is continuing to evolve and change the way we shop online.
