Amazon licenses its AI shopping technology to retailers through new AWS service

Amazon Offers AI Shopping Tech to Retailers Through Cloud Division

Amazon Web Services has launched a new product that allows retailers to build their own AI-powered shopping assistants using the same Amazon AI shopping technology that powers the company's Alexa for Shopping platform 1

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. The AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant packages the architecture, starter code, and learnings from Amazon's internal e-commerce AI tools into a solution that retailers can deploy in as little as 60 days 2

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. This marks another chapter in Amazon's strategy of transforming internally developed technology into external services, following the blueprint it established two decades ago with Amazon Web Services and later with its cashier-less checkout and warehousing solutions 1

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The move positions Amazon squarely in the escalating battle among tech giants to control different pieces of the AI-powered e-commerce assistants landscape. Each deployment is customized to match a retailer's specific catalog, brand voice, and customer base, allowing businesses to launch custom AI shopping experiences without spending years building systems from scratch 3

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Kate Spade Becomes First Customer in Agentic Commerce Push

Tapestry, the parent company of luxury fashion brand Kate Spade, has emerged as the first retailer to deploy the service, launching an AI Gift Concierge on KateSpade.com in April 1

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. The tool engages shoppers in conversational dialogue about occasion, recipient, and style before delivering personalized recommendations tailored to Kate Spade's product inventory 3

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. Built on Anthropic Haiku 4.5 model through Amazon Bedrock, the concierge underwent roughly 2.5 months of testing before going live 2

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Yang Lu, Tapestry's chief information and digital officer, emphasized that while AWS brought the recipe, the company built the customization its consumers needed 5

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. The deployment demonstrates how AI for retailers can transform the shopping experience while maintaining brand identity and customer relationships. Amazon says additional retailers are currently testing the solution 1

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Technology Built on $12 Billion Success Story

The AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant is built on the same technology that powers Alexa for Shopping, which Amazon says drove nearly $12 billion in incremental sales last year 2

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. The assistant was used by more than 300 million customers in 2025, with conversational shopping sessions converting at 3.5 times the rate of traditional keyword search 3

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. Earlier this month, Amazon rebranded its e-commerce chatbot from Rufus to Alexa for Shopping and enabled it by default in search queries on its store 1

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The service combines several AWS products including Amazon Bedrock, which provides access to Generative AI foundation models, and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, an AI agent development toolkit 4

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. OpenSearch, an open-source search engine, enables AI shopping assistants to find product information requested by users 4

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. Professional services from AWS's Generative AI Innovation Center help retailers customize the solution for their requirements, adapting assistants to design guidelines and implementing guardrails to prevent irrelevant output 4

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Competitive Landscape in AI Integration in the Retail Sector

The launch intensifies competition in agentic commerce, where tech giants are racing to control the infrastructure of AI-powered shopping. Google is building shopping features into AI-powered search results and has partnered with Shopify on an open commerce standard 2

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. Microsoft has added checkout tools to its Copilot assistant and works with retailers like Ralph Lauren on custom experiences 2

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. OpenAI has been working with Shopify and Walmart to surface products in ChatGPT after its initial Instant Checkout feature fell flat 2

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Amazon's approach differs fundamentally from competitors. Where Stripe, Google, and OpenAI build intermediary layers between consumers and merchants, Amazon offers AI shopping tech to retailers enabling them to own the customer relationship rather than cede it to general-purpose AI platforms 3

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. In its announcement, Amazon suggested retailers build their own AI tools rather than relinquishing control to intermediaries, noting that "retailers already possess deep vertical knowledge about their products, customers, and categories that no general-purpose AI can match" 1

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Stakes and Future Implications for Retail

The stakes are substantial. Accenture estimates that by 2030, more than 30% of online commerce could run through AI agents, representing approximately $3.1 trillion in transactions 2

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. Amazon's pitch requires retailers to trust its cloud division with their AI shopping infrastructure, even as Amazon's retail arm competes against them for customers 2

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. AWS says retailers using the service will keep control of their own customer data, product catalogs, and business rules 2

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For Amazon, the service benefits the company regardless of adoption patterns. AWS reported $37.6 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2026, growing 28% year over year, its fastest rate in more than three years 3

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. Every retailer that deploys the assistant runs it on AWS infrastructure, using Bedrock, AgentCore, and OpenSearch 3

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. Building custom AI applications from scratch can take years, but the service compresses that timeline to about 60 days 4

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Retailers face a strategic decision as AI agents become the primary interface for purchase decisions. Those without their own conversational shopping capability risk becoming dependent on platforms they don't control. The white-label solution addresses a specific anxiety: specialty retailers know their products better than any intermediary, and Amazon's service lets them act on that knowledge while maintaining their brand identity and direct customer relationships.🟡_