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Amazon says conversational AI is replacing product search for shopping
Amazon’s retail chief links the shift to its Alexa for Shopping experience, and says the assistant is used by more than 300 million customers.
Amazon is betting that the next evolution in online shopping moves beyond search bars toward conversational AI, with shoppers asking questions in plain language and buying directly from the answers, according to Yahoo Finance.
Doug Herrington, CEO of Amazon’s Worldwide Stores, points to an old Sears catalog as an example of how each shopping method eventually reaches a ceiling, arguing that the search bar is now giving way to conversation through Alexa for Shopping.
Yahoo Finance reports that Amazon’s assistant, previously known as Rufus, answers simple questions like checking delivery timing instantly, while also handling more complex requests such as comparing products, and that it can support visual inputs like suggesting grocery orders from a photo of a fridge.
The outlet also notes that Amazon says the assistant was used by more than 300 million customers last year, driving about $12 billion in additional annualized sales and making users around 60% more likely to complete a purchase, as the company faces competition from OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity.