Amazon AI Audio Summaries: New Feature for Product Details

Amazon Introduces AI-Powered Audio Summaries for Products

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it is currently evaluating short-form, AI-generated audio summaries for a limited selection of products. These audio recaps are delivered by what Amazon refers to as “AI-powered shopping experts.”

How the New Feature Works

The AI experts discuss crucial product characteristics, insights gleaned from customer feedback, and relevant data sourced from across the internet. Users can access these summaries by selecting the “Hear the highlights” button within the Amazon Shopping application.

Amazon intends to initially test this functionality on items that generally necessitate careful consideration before a purchase is made.

The Goal: Streamlined Shopping Experience

The primary objective of this feature is to assist Amazon customers in conserving time during their shopping experience. It aims to deliver essential information through a conversational and engaging format.

According to the company’s blog post, the feature is designed to make product research both enjoyable and convenient. It simulates a discussion with knowledgeable friends, simplifying the purchasing process, even while multitasking or on the move.

Availability and Future Plans

Currently, these summaries are available to a subset of U.S. customers on a select range of products. Amazon has plans to expand the feature’s availability to a wider array of products and customers within the United States in the coming months.

Underlying Technology

The feature leverages large language models (LLMs) to create scripts. These scripts are compiled from customer reviews and information gathered from the web.

Subsequently, this content is transformed into concise audio clips.

Integration with Existing AI Tools

Amazon highlights that this new feature complements its existing suite of AI-driven shopping tools. These include Rufus, the company’s generative AI shopping assistant, and Interests, an AI function that tracks new products aligning with user preferences.

Industry Trend: AI-Powered Audio Summaries

Amazon is not alone in exploring the use of short-form, AI-generated audio to provide users with quick and efficient information. Last year, Google’s NotebookLM introduced Audio Overviews.

This Google feature allows users to generate a podcast-style summary, hosted by AI virtual presenters, based on documents shared with the AI research assistant, such as academic materials or legal documents.