Amazon is said to be experimenting with an AI-driven audio feature which is designed to make online shopping even easier for its users. The feature, now in a trial period for a small number of United States users, offers brief audio summaries of product details, customer reviews and other information that is already available online.
This new feature, available by clicking on a “Hear the highlights” button inside the Amazon shopping app, relies on a combination of AI, machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) to be able to cycle through and summarize an ever-growing number of high-scoring reviews — all of which could theoretically tie to use of a large language model.
The aim is to help shoppers find an overview of a product quickly, rather than reading through reams of text descriptions and reviews.
AI-generated audio summaries will function as artificial intelligence shopping experts who have already read through the product details so customers can save time on their purchase decisions. By providing an audio means of learning key product features, Amazon is looking to increase user engagement and facilitate on-the-go or multi-tasking shopping.
The examples demonstrate the feature talking through some of the key features of products such as Keurig coffee makers, giving a user-friendly overview of the key features and how it works, in the form of a conversation.
That’s in line with Amazon’s overall approach of pushing AI to further permeate its platform. Recent developments have seen an updated Alexa+ with generative AI capabilities, and the introduction of AI-based shopping assistants such as Rufus and Shopping Guides. The audio summary testing is the latest in a continued effort to make buying online more efficient and user-friendly.
This feature, only available for certain products and select U.S. customers today, is intended to expand to more products and more Amazon.com accounts in the next few weeks. This action is indicative of an increasing vein throughout the technology sector, as companies are turning to AI-driven experiences and products to make a difference in a world where competition is never ending.
The implications if an audio summary feature like this were to take off and set a new expectation for e-commerce platforms is that product discovery and evaluation will be faster, easier and more straightforward for consumers.
