Amazon testing shopping, health assistants, pushes into generative AI

AmazonIn an effort to infuse generative artificial intelligence in a wider band of his universe of electronic commerce, recently began to test a sales assistant and a chatbot focused on health with a subset of users.

AI has become a major investment area on Amazon, especially in its retail activities, cloud computing, apparatus and health care. In the retail, Amazon has already launched a shopping chatbot, an AI assistant for sellers and AI purchase guides.

The new services that Amazon has tests has appeared on its application or website in recent weeks. A spokesperson for Amazon confirmed that the features were tested in beta with certain customers.

The purchase tool, called IA interests, invites users to describe an interest “using your own words”, then generates an organized selection of products. The functionality allows consumers to browse products using more conversational language and is distinct from the main search bar on the Amazon website.

In its main application, Amazon has a destination page for functionality.

“Describe your interest, such as” coffee brewing gadgets “or” latest pickleball accessories “- and we will find products relevant to you,” said the page. Other suggested research includes “children’s books on persistence and management of failure” and “brain teasers which are not too hard, made of wood or metal”.

The Amazon spokesperson said that interests use major language models to translate everyday words or sentences into requests and attributes that traditional search engines can turn into product recommendations. It is not known about which the interests of the models rest.

Amazon said in a blog article After publication of this article, he plans to make the functionality available to all American users in the coming months.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last month that employees had built or are building around 1,000 AI generating requests throughout the company. Its cloud unit offers a chatbot for companies, called Q. In trade, the company has deployed services for consumers as well as its millions of third -party sellers.

Amazon also explores the means to meet medical needs. The company is testing a chatbot on its website and mobile application called “Health AI”, which can answer health and well-being questions, “offer health care care options” and suggest products.

While Rufus, Amazon’s purchasing chatbot, can suggest products such as ice packs and ibuprofen, Health IA goes further, offering users medical advice and care advice, such as how to manage colds or flu. The site indicates that the service cannot provide personalized medical advice.

Certain responses have a “clinically verified” badge, which designates information “examined by American approved clinicians”, explains Amazon.

Health IA also directs users to Amazon’s online pharmacy, as well as the clinical services offered by a medical, the primary care provider he acquired for around $ 3.9 billion in 2022.

The Amazon spokesman said that the health assistant uses Bedrock, a service launched by the Amazon Cloud unit that has accesses AI models from the company and third parties.

“We collect customer comments and plan to introduce new features to improve experience in the future,” the spokesman said in a statement.

More consumers kiss a generative AI As a purchase tool, and with features like Health AI and Interst Intest, Amazon wants buyers to use its own services compared to competitors such as Openai Chatpt.

With sufficient use, Amazon could obtain valuable information on how people interact with AI assistants while society is preparing to revise Alexa, the digital assistant he launched more than a decade ago.

Amazon announced Alexa +, a new version of technology integrated into a generative AI at the end of last month. The company says that Alexa +, which has not yet been deployed, is able to manage more complex tasks and can serve as an agent by taking measures for users without their direct involvement.

Andrew BellAn Amazon electronic commerce manager for the National Fire Protection Association which also publishes research on Amazon patent deposits and the development of AI, came across new shopping and health and recently characteristics and recently Published on this subject On LinkedIn.

Bell said in an interview that Alexa + could potentially rely on models developed for Amazon applications like Health IA to respond to requests.

“If there is a question related to health, Alexa + may call on a health AI,” said Bell. “If there is a product related to the product, Alexa + can call Rufus.”

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