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Amazon's AI-generated shopping experts now let you ask questions

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Why This Matters

Amazon's new AI-powered shopping feature enhances the user experience by allowing consumers to ask real-time questions about products through interactive audio summaries. This innovation signifies a shift towards more personalized and conversational shopping assistance, potentially transforming how consumers engage with product information. It also underscores Amazon's commitment to integrating advanced AI to streamline and enrich the online shopping process.

Key Takeaways

Rejoice: The Amazon app now lets you ask real shopping questions to its fake podcasters — it's an addition to the "Hear the highlights" AI feature the company introduced last year. Before, the short audio summaries were generated from an unalterable script. Now, the dialogue can adapt to your spoken or typed questions.

Amazon says Hear the Highlights is now available for "millions of products" in the company's mobile app. You'll see a button beneath the product image for supported listings. Choosing this will launch a short (usually a minute or two) AI-generated audio snippet.

The recordings star a "host" and an "expert" of which chat about aspects of the product. What's new is the ability to interrupt the AI broadcasters for a Q&A. After starting the audio, tap the raised hand icon in the audio pop-up, then type or speak (using the mic button) your questions. The AI hosts will continue with their script, squeeze in your question between sections, and then return to their original spiel.