Amazon is using artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers find the right product by summarizing customer reviews on some products. The feature provides a brief overview of what shoppers liked and disliked about the product, along with a disclaimer that the summary is “AI-generated from the text of customer reviews.”
AI-generated Summaries
Amazon began testing the feature in its shopping app recently and it is currently being tested. The feature was first spotted by Mark Wieczorek, technology chief of Amazon marketing agency Fortress Brand. The summaries are AI-generated from the text of customer reviews and provide an overview of what shoppers liked and disliked about the product. A mobile listing for a children’s “Magic Mixies” cauldron toy says that buyers gave positive feedback around its “fun factor, appearance, value, performance, quality, charging, and leakage.” The summary states that “However, the majority of customers have expressed negative opinions on these aspects,” and provides examples such as some customers paying over $100 for a toy that was not worth it, while others had issues with the product’s quality and charging.
Amazon’s AI Investment
Amazon spokesperson Lindsay Shanahan said in a statement that Amazon is significantly investing in generative AI across all of its businesses. Amazon has long relied on AI and machine learning to deliver targeted ads and personalized recommendations to shoppers. The recent frenzy around generative AI and chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT has pushed companies like Amazon to sharpen their focus on the technology. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in April that generative AI and large language models stand to “transform and improve virtually every customer experience.”
Benefits for Shoppers
Using AI to summarize reviews could be useful for shoppers as Amazon has millions of products on its online store and there can be thousands of reviews on a single item. Amazon has tried to make it easier for shoppers to review products through its one-tap ratings system, which lets users leave feedback without writing a full review. More recently, some shoppers started using chatbots to write Amazon reviews for them. Trust has long been an issue on Amazon as bogus reviews have populated the site and other online marketplaces, and many companies have turned to a combination of human moderators and automated tools to weed them out.
Amazon has started using AI to summarize customer reviews on some products, which could prove useful for shoppers. The summaries provide an overview of what shoppers liked and disliked about the product. Amazon is significantly investing in generative AI across all of its businesses, and the recent frenzy around generative AI and chatbots has pushed companies like Amazon to sharpen their focus on the technology.
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