Amazon’s AI agent will shop for you on third-party sites
Amazon has announced that it is testing a new AI-based shopping assistant, called “Buy for Me,” among a subset of users. blog post Thursday.
The Buy for Me feature displays products from other websites if Amazon does not sell the product that users are looking for. Then users can choose and request to buy one of these products, without ever leaving the Amazon Shopping App.
Amazon has become the latest company to introduce an AI shopping agent. It joins firms such as OpenAI and Google, who have also shown similar agents which can visit websites and assist users in making purchases. Amazon is the most popular platform for online shopping, but Buy for Me will allow Amazon to increase its e-commerce sales. Amazon’s AI shopping agents will, behind the scenes, visit an external website to select a product a user has requested and then fill out the user’s name, shipping details, and payment information to purchase the item.
Amazon claims that the new agentic-shopping feature is powered by Amazon Nova AI models in addition to Anthropic’s Claude. Nova Act is one of the models. This AI agent, which Amazon announced earlier this week, can use websites independently.
Amazon stated in the blog post mentioned above that Buy for Me uses encrypted data to “securely insert” your billing information on third party sites, so that Amazon cannot see what you are ordering outside its platform. This is a different approach from OpenAI’s and Google’s agents who require humans to enter credit card information, as well as Perplexity AI agent which uses a prepaid card to make purchases.
Giving your credit card details to AI is not a good idea for some users. AI can be prone to mistakes and hallucinations. TechCrunch has found that AI shopping agents are slow to process orders and can get stuck at any point.
Amazon basically asks users to trust that their agent won’t accidentally buy 1,000 pairs of socks, instead of 10. It also asks that they accept less control of the shopping experience. Buy for Me will guide a customer to the digital storefront where the AI agent purchased the order if they need to return or exchange it.
Soon we’ll see how many people will take the plunge. Maxwell Zeff, a senior reporter for TechCrunch who specializes in AI and emerging technology, is
Maxwell Zeff. Zeff covered the rise and fall of AI, as well as the Silicon Valley Bank Crisis, for Gizmodo and MSNBC. He is based out of San Francisco. When he is not reporting, you can find him hiking, biking and exploring the Bay Area food scene.
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