Amazon wants to help consumers view AI-based shopping through a new lens.
The e-tailer announced Tuesday it had upgraded its Amazon Lens function, which will going forward be known as Amazon Lens Live. The updated technology, which has thus far been rolled out to “tens of millions of customers” in Amazon’s iOS app, allows users to receive instant product matches for live images.
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Previously, users had to upload or capture a static image of a product they wanted to find. Now, when a user opens Lens Live, the Amazon app instantly populates a carousel of potential products in real-time, without needing a static image. The company said the quick-turnaround carousel layout allows consumers in search of an item to compare product attributes in real time, without having to click into product description pages displayed in a typical list.
What’s more, the company has integrated its shopping assistant, Rufus , into the experience. That means consumers can get answers to common product questions without ever leaving the Lens Live tool.
“While in the camera view, customers will now see suggested questions and quick summaries of what makes a product stand out. These conversational prompts and summaries appear under the product carousel, allowing customers to perform speedy research, quickly access key product insights and get their questions answered,” the company wrote in a blog post about the newly updated tool.
Notably, consumers can add items directly to their carts or wishlists from Lens Live, likely with the idea that it could expedite consumers’ journey to checkout if they are able to do uninterrupted shopping via Lens Live.
For instance, a consumer might quickly see a pair of shoes they like on the street, then open the Amazon app to instantly scan them and receive results. From there, Rufus will display commonly asked questions about the products the consumer is browsing through; in the case of shoes, Rufus might prompt a customer to explore further information about how consumers say the sizing runs or about whether they’re suitable for walking long distances. From there, the consumer can further interface with Rufus; once they have the needed information about a desired product, they can save it to their Amazon account or add it directly to their cart.
The emergence of Lens Live doesn’t completely wipe out traditional Lens. Amazon said consumers can still search for products using static images if they need to. The company expects Lens Live to be fully rolled out to iOS users in the coming months, it said.
Lens Live uses machine learning models, paired with computer vision object detection to pinpoint the products consumers are trying to find. Rufus is a large-language model (LLM) running on top of the other systems that make Lens Live go.
This upgrade seems to be another cog in Amazon’s large-scale shopping AI aspirations. According to a LinkedIn post from e-commerce Juozas Kaziukenas, the online shopping giant is working to block Big Tech players’ respective LLMs from crawling and ingesting its product data to display to consumers. That could be a play at ensuring Amazon is some consumers’ first stop on the AI-based shopping journey.
It seems the company wants to be the go-to for technology-assisted shopping, which is rapidly becoming a highly competitive environment. Data shows that consumers have already taken to LLM-based shopping in some instances; Salesforce survey results show that one-tenth of Gen Zers begin a product search by using an LLM.
That Amazon is rapidly iterating on its own systems—and integrating LLM capabilities into them—could be another sign that it’s trying to preserve market share and entice consumers to search directly on its platform, rather than working to bring consumers in from other sources. That strategy could become particularly important if Big Tech players’ LLMs start charging fees or commissions on product referrals, as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has reportedly been considering .
As AI shopping goes, it’s a race to the consumer’s wallet. And the giant controlling much of today’s e-commerce market share doesn’t seem to be shying away.
“We’ll continue to look for ways to build on the convenience of searching and shopping with Amazon Lens, helping customers find and shop for the items they need and want that much faster,” the company wrote.
