Amazon introduced a new product review feature that uses generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to provide a snapshot of what human customers tend to think of items, in what the company is hailing as its latest review innovation.
The online retail giant's director of community shopping, Vaughn Schermerhorn, wrote in a blog post Monday that the new AI-generated customer review highlights are currently available to a subset of U.S. mobile shoppers for an array of products, and that the company may make it available to additional customers and categories in the coming months based on customer feedback.
"We want to make it even easier for customers to understand the common themes across reviews, and with the recent advancements in generative AI, we believe we have the technical means to address this long-standing customer need," Schermerhorn wrote.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
Generative AI has generated a great deal of buzz since OpenAI's popular GenAI chatbot, ChatGPT, became available to the public late last year. The technology has the ability to complete a wide range of tasks, including answering questions and producing content.
Amazon's new feature will use GenAI to scan existing customer reviews for common themes and provide a short paragraph on a product's detail page summarizing that feedback. Customers can give it a quick glance to help make a purchasing decision in less time than scanning dozens of reviews on their own.
Amazon has used AI for years, and CEO Andy Jassy said in a CNBC interview last month that the company will continue to lean into the technology.
He said at the time that generative AI is currently part of the "hype cycle," but called it "one of the biggest technical transformations in our lifetime."
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He added, "I think it has the ability to transform virtually every customer experience that we know."
FOX Business' Julia Musto contributed to this report.
