Amazon is pushing deeper into generative artificial intelligence (AI) through testing shopping and health assistants.
The new Interests feature for shopping allows users to enter personalised shopping prompts based on their interests and price range. Amazon’s store then sends them notifications of products that are relevant to the prompts.
The feature is available to some U.S. users through the app or mobile website in the “Me” tab.
Amazon plans to roll out Interests to all of its U.S. users in the coming months.
The company is also exploring ways to use AI for medical needs through testing a chatbot on its website and mobile app called “Health AI”.
The aim is for the Health AI to be able to provide common care options and suggest products. Unlike Amazon’s Rufus, which can suggest products like ice packs and ibuprofen, the Health AI will also be able to provide medical guidance, such as common ways to treat cold symptoms or the flu.
After Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical for roughly US$3.9 million, the Health AI can also steer users to Amazon’s online pharmacy and clinical services offered by the clinical care provider.
The chatbot uses Bedrock, a service created by Amazon’s cloud unit that accesses AI models from the company and third parties.
"We are collecting feedback from customers and plan to introduce new features to enhance the experience in the future," a spokesperson said in a statement.
The company has also announced Alexa+, an upgraded version of Alexa powered by generative AI that can be accessed for $19.99 once it’s rolled out.
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