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ZDNET's key takeaways
Amazon held its Delivering the Future event.
The event focused on how AI and the latest tech impact deliveries
These benefits encompass prescriptions, medicine, and more.
Amazon expanded from being more than just an e-commerce site to a marketplace that people rely on for quick deliveries of their goods. During its Delivering the Future event, the company unveiled upgrades making those deliveries even more efficient.
Amazon said that in 2025, it will deliver the fastest speeds ever for Prime members. In a blog post pulling back the curtains, the company revealed some of the meaningful ways it is making those faster and more efficient deliveries happen. Keep reading to see the biggest standouts.
Building on existing orders
If you placed an order and then realized you forgot something, you no longer have to wonder or hope that it comes in the same package. Rather, Prime members can now add items from across Amazon to their upcoming delivery through the new "Add to Delivery" feature, launched at the beginning of October.
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It is designed to make the shopping experience more convenient, with Amazon saying that customers have used the feature over 50 million times to date.
2. Quicker grocery deliveries
If you have ever placed an online grocery store order, you know how much easier the process is than having to go to the store and pick everything out yourself. To further enhance the convenience of ordering groceries online, the company has expanded its Same-Day Delivery service in August to include perishable grocery items.
That means you can have perishable items, such as fresh produce, dairy, meat, seafood, and frozen food, delivered within hours after you place them in your cart. Amazon also added that its "specialized temperature-controlled fulfillment network" ensures that even perishables arrive in a fresh and high-quality state.
3. Prescriptions and medications
Amazon has expanded its scope to sell nearly every product you need, including medications. Amazon Pharmacy sells prescriptions, and it now offers Same-Day Delivery of prescription medications in over a dozen cities, which it announced in earlier in October, including New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix, Greater Detroit, and Seattle. The company plans to expand its reach to nearly 50% of US customers by the end of 2025.
The way it works is that Amazon collaborates with a pharmacy stocked with commonly prescribed medications and integrates it into the Amazon logistics network to deliver the product directly to the consumer, according to the release.
Additionally, the company notes that Amazon Pharmacy is using AI and robotics to expedite the processing of prescriptions. Generative AI plays a role in deciphering the hidden message in a handwritten prescription to validate it, or an online one instead. Meanwhile, a robotic arm helps with filing the medication.
Disclosure: The cost of Sabrina Ortiz's travel to San Francisco, California, for the Delivering the Future event was covered by Amazon, a common industry practice for long-distance trips. The judgments and opinions of ZDNET's writers and editors are always independent of the companies we cover.