Large language models have shown potential in e-commerce. Amazon is now bringing its AI tools to more retailers.
Amazon's generative AI tools are now available to more users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. Since March, these tools have allowed selling partners to create and optimize their product listings. The company aims to support them in better presenting their products on the platform and improving the sales process.
According to Amazon, AI-generated descriptions perform far better than those written by humans. The company's latest press release states that more than 30,000 sellers in Europe and 200,000 worldwide have already tried one or more of the generative AI tools.
The tool generates titles, descriptions, and other details from a few keywords, a link, or an uploaded product image. It also analyzes existing listings and adds missing information if necessary.
It's clear that current language models can help with such undemanding tasks. Over the past few months, many sellers have used third-party tools like ChatGPT to automatically populate product titles, sometimes with curious consequences.
Many products suddenly had names like "I'm sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request, it goes against OpenAI use policy" because ChatGPT refused the request. For Amazon, integrating a similar function directly into the platform and making such error-prone workarounds unnecessary was the logical next step.
Three-quarters see potential in using AI tools
With the AI tools, Amazon primarily wants to support small and medium-sized enterprises. A survey of European SMEs showed that many sellers see great potential in using AI. Over three-quarters of respondents expect the technology to help them save time, work more efficiently, improve content quality, increase profitability, and optimize customer service.
Companies that already regularly use AI report greater benefits than those still experimenting. 85 percent of regular users are convinced that the technology has significantly improved their business, particularly through higher content quality.
Broad AI engagement
Amazon has been using AI in various areas for many years. The online retailer gives customers personalized product recommendations, predicts demand, and automates inventory management. On product pages, Amazon is also testing AI-generated review summaries and chatbots that answer questions.
It's unclear which language model is being used. However, the US company is heavily investing in Claude developer Anthropic. Recently, it also became known that Amazon is working on a ChatGPT competitor under the project name "Metis".
