Amazon launches Project Amelia, an AI assistant for third-party developers – The Mercury News

Amazon on Thursday unveiled a brand new AI-powered personal assistant for third-party sellers, considered one of many latest features the corporate rolled out this week for its independent sellers.

The assistant, internally called “Project Amelia,” answers questions from sellers, gives advice, and later diagnoses problems and takes motion.

Amazon has already integrated generative artificial intelligence into some services for sellers, equivalent to the flexibility to create product suggestions using AI, and has launched other AI-powered tools, including the shopping assistant Rufus and the Chatbot QThe company can also be reportedly working on a Upgrade to your personal voice assistant Alexawhich uses AI to deliver a brand new paid subscription service.

Project Amelia runs on Amazon Bedrock, an Amazon Web Services offering that gives various foundational learning models for firms, including Amazon itself, to construct and scale AI-powered applications.

Amazon has been working on Project Amelia for greater than a yr, Dharmesh Mehta, vice chairman of partner services sales, said in an interview with The Seattle Times on Wednesday. The project got its name since it was housed in the corporate's Amelia constructing in South Lake Union, which was named in honor of Amelia Earhart.

In its beta version launched Thursday, Project Amelia can answer questions on a seller's inventory, sales and customer traffic, and offer advice on launching a brand new product or preparing for the upcoming holiday season. It can recommend a seller add more keywords to a product listing or promote festive items ahead of the vacations.

A smartphone displays messages
Amazon unveiled a brand new AI-powered assistant for third-party sellers on Thursday, September 19, 2024. The assistant, called Project Amelia, answers questions from sellers and provides advice on specific topics. (Amazon/TNS)

This can also prompt a seller to try other Amazon services, equivalent to Fulfillment by Amazon, a service that permits third-party sellers to enroll to make use of Amazon's achievement network to ship orders.

Right now, Project Amelia looks and behaves like other chatbots on the web: a user types a matter right into a text box at the underside of the screen and sends it to Amelia, who takes time to think concerning the answer after which generates just a few lines of data. The bot then suggests follow-up questions the user might need to ask next.

But Mehta can imagine a version of Project Amelia that doesn't require a lot back-and-forth. He hopes that sooner or later the assistant might offer to act on behalf of the salesperson. Instead of talking to a salesman concerning the upcoming holidays, he imagines that sooner or later Project Amelia might offer to supply a 20% discount on holiday T-shirts before the vacations.

“We use generative AI throughout the entire shopping experience. If we can create a better shopping experience, then customers love the products, they come more often, and that's all good for sellers,” Mehta said.

“We will continue to improve the shopping experience [and] When I think about every aspect of the retail experience, we can continue to reinvent some of them or redesign them with generative AI,” he continued.

Mehta compared the beta version of Project Amelia to a concierge service. The assistant takes all styles of questions from users after which works within the background to seek out a solution.

Sometimes the concierge must call a plumber or electrician to repair the issue, however the user doesn't must know that. In the AI ​​world, the plumbers and electricians are additional data models trained to be material experts on all styles of topics.

Over the past three months, Amazon has seen a surge in interest in its AI tools that help sellers write product listings, Mehta said. Since launching last yr, the corporate has continued to refine the features, and the more sellers use them, the smarter the AI ​​becomes, he said.

At first, sellers needed to enter keywords. Then they may add images or send a URL. Soon, Mehta said, sellers will give you the chance to upload a product catalog and the tool will do the remaining. Amazon also plans to launch a brand new feature that can use artificial intelligence to generate promotional videos for sellers.

This week, at its annual third-party seller conference, Amazon announced quite a lot of other latest services, including latest ways to ship products from overseas, a brand new app for sellers using Amazon Shipping, and a brand new automatic product replenishment offering for third-party sellers when inventory runs low.

Amazon also announced latest partnerships with three other major players within the e-commerce space: Google, TikTok and PayPal.

Third-party sellers who use Buy With Prime — a way for purchasers to buy on third-party web sites using Amazon Prime — can now display the Prime checkmark and estimated delivery speed on TikTok and Google's shopping platforms.

On PayPal, merchants can now offer Prime as a delivery choice to their buyers.

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