Amazon wants to use artificial intelligence to eliminate analysis paralysis for its consumers.
The e-tail giant announced Thursday it has started rolling out an AI-powered, consumer-facing feature it calls Help Me Decide.
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As the name notes, the tool is meant to help consumers quickly select the right product for their needs. The recommendations Amazon feeds consumers are based on consumers’ specific browsing history, shopping behavior and preferences, the company said.
Amazon has started rolling the feature out to millions of U.S. shoppers, and the feature is available both on its mobile app and on mobile web browsers. It did not disclose when Help Me Decide will be fully rolled out.
To use the feature, shoppers can press the “Help Me Decide” button on product detail pages or on the “Keep shopping for” feature the company presents to users upon opening the app.
What’s notable about Help Me Decide, as compared with other AI shopping efforts from Amazon, is that the consumer doesn’t need to prompt the model—that is to say, the consumer doesn’t have to manually type out a full-on description of what they’re looking for in a product. Simply knowing the type of product the consumer has been searching for is enough for the tool to populate product options on a consumer’s behalf.
Daniel Lloyd, vice president of personalization at Amazon, said the tool aims to smooth out the existing shopping experience for Amazon customers.
“Help Me Decide saves you time by using AI to provide product recommendations tailored to your needs after you’ve been browsing several similar items, giving you confidence in your purchase decision,” Lloyd said in a statement. “Help Me Decide continues to build on our commitment to use AI to improve the customer experience by creating tools that make shopping easier and more enjoyable.”
Amazon leverages data it has about the products on its marketplace, alongside existing customer reviews, pricing details and return rates, then compares that information with what its AI models already know about the consumer to provide specific recommendations. The company said it provides an at-large recommendation, but also gives users a budget-friendly option and an upgraded option. For each option, Amazon provides an overview of the product, an explanation of why it might work well for that consumer’s needs, information about other customers’ experience with the product and an estimated delivery date.
According to the e-tail, logistics and technology giant, Help Me Decide leverages large language models (LLMs) alongside AWS capabilities like Amazon Bedrock, which provides a way to access various foundation models on one platform; Amazon OpenSearch, which helps leverage user data and Amazon SageMaker, a developer platform for machine-learning models.
Amazon said Help Me Decide marks the latest way it has worked to integrate AI into the consumer shopping experience. It has previously launched Rufus , its shopping assistant, which helps rapidly answer consumers’ questions about products and find worthwhile products to purchase, and other AI-based tools, like Lens Live , which allows consumers to scan items in real time to receive access to listings for similar products.
Amazon seems to be working to forge its own path on AI-based shopping, especially as agentic commerce continues to creep into the conversation; retail competitor Walmart announced this month that it would allow ChatGPT users to buy Walmart products directly in the LLM by connecting its systems with the Instant Checkout tool Etsy is also testing . Amazon has made no public move to mirror Walmart’s action.
