Amazon Unveils Project Amelia: AI Assistant Revolutionizing Retail for Third-Party Sellers

Amazon Introduces Project Amelia, AI Assistant For Retailers

Currently available in beta for US sellers, Project Amelia will expand globally by the end of 2024. Amazon has launched its AI assistant, Project Amelia for sellers on their retail site to make managing and growing business easier. Using the power of Amazon Bedrock and all its available AI models, Project Amelia aims to provide instant secure access to sales and business matrices, compare trends and provide guidance based on data. Sellers can interact with Amelia to gain quick insights into their performance, compare year on year sales and even drill down into product-specific data, like asking how a particular item is performing in terms of sales or customer traffic. Currently available in beta for US sellers, Project Amelia will expand globally by the end of 2024. "While Amazon offers many powerful tools and services to assist with these tasks, we want to make it even easier for sellers to manage and grow their business," said Mary Beth Westmoreland, VP, worldwide selling partner experience at Amazon in the release blog. Project Amelia offers sellers an AI-powered, all-in-one assistant that provides instant answers, advice, and tools to streamline their business operations. Accessible at any time within Seller Central, this generative AI solution delivers accurate information and personalised guidance tailored to each seller's unique business. "Project Amelia is just one of five generative AI tools announced today that are going to improve the Amazon experience for both sellers and customers," said Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of AI and data at Amazon.

Amazon debuts an AI assistant for sellers, Project Amelia | TechCrunch

Amazon sellers now have access to an AI assistant designed to help them grow their business by answering questions about their metrics, and later, may be able to help them directly resolve issues that arise. The assistant, code-named Project Amelia and built on AWS's Amazon Bedrock, will initially be available in beta to U.S. sellers, starting today. The retail giant says select U.S. sellers will gain access immediately, followed by a broader rollout across the U.S. Later this year, the feature will begin to arrive in more countries and in other languages besides English. The goal with Project Amelia, explains Amazon, is to offer sellers tools that can them manage and grow their business. At launch, sellers will be able to retrieve information like sales data and customer traffic information, and be able to ask the assistant questions like "How is my business doing?" In response, the AI will offer a summary of metrics, including recent sales, units sold, and website traffic, and compare those metrics to the same time last year. Sellers will also be able to ask follow-up questions, like those focused on a single product's sale, growth, and customer traffic, among other things. Later, the AI assistant will be able to help resolve issues and aid with other tasks. For example, Amazon sellers will be able to ask something like "I have 300 units on the way and don't see that reflected in the report. Can someone look into this?," and they'll receive personalized guidance. If needed, they may also be connected with Amazon's support team to help them investigate the issue further, which makes the assistant sound more like a traditional chatbot, in that case. Further down the road, Project Amelia will be able to offer sellers "additional help managing the task" or may even "offer to solve the problem on a seller's behalf," Amazon says, without providing specifics or a timeframe to launch. "We are always seeking to equip our selling partners with the most effective tools and capabilities, empowering them to more easily start and grow a successful business," reads an Amazon blog post, penned by Mary Beth Westmoreland, VP, of Amazon's Worldwide Selling Partner Experience. "By leveraging the transformative power of generative AI, we are creating and deploying technologies that will improve how sellers can manage and grow their businesses. Innovative solutions like Project Amelia are reducing the time, effort, and resources required from sellers to manage their business, allowing them more time for building great products and delighting customers," she added. Amelia's launch follows the launch of another AI chatbot aimed at consumers, Rufus, which went live in the U.S. this summer. On the consumer side, Amazon is also leveraging AI to help customers find clothes that fit and to enhance product reviews, among other things. For sellers, Amazon had previously introduced generative AI tools to help them create product listings, and for those who advertise on Amazon, tools to generate backgrounds using AI.

'Project Amelia': Amazon's new AI assistant will advise sellers and act on their behalf

Amazon is launching a new AI-powered selling assistant code-named "Project Amelia," using generative artificial intelligence to answer questions and provide guidance, helping sellers navigate the nuances of e-commerce. Over time, the company says, the AI assistant will also serve as an autonomous agent, anticipating the needs of sellers and taking action to resolve issues. The company is announcing a beta of the new AI assistant on Thursday morning at its Accelerate seller conference in Seattle. It works through a conversational interface within the Amazon Seller Central portal. Sellers have "a whole host of different areas that they have to figure out," said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Services, in an interview this week. "They need to understand selling an Amazon store. They've got to understand their products, and their business, and what their objectives are." The idea with Project Amelia, he explained, was to create an AI assistant that can answer questions, and offer proactive advice and guidance. The AI assistant combines general knowledge of the Amazon selling experience with specific insights into the seller's situation. For example, sellers will be able to use the AI assistant to get an overview of their business, or seek advice on product categories, pricing, and advertising strategies. As the technology evolves, Project Amelia will eventually be able to take action on sellers' behalf, helping to resolve issues such as missing inventory or shipping delays. It's the latest example of AI reshaping the experience for one of Amazon's most important constituencies. Sellers represent more than 60% of sales on Amazon.com, Mehta said during his keynote address Wednesday. Third-party seller services generated more than $148 billion in revenue for Amazon during the last 12 months, or nearly 25% of the company's total revenue, according to Amazon's financial reports. Amazon competes in this sector against retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Alibaba, as well as Shopify and others. This year's conference comes against a backdrop of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's landmark lawsuit, filed a year ago, alleging that the company illegally leverages monopoly power over sellers and others. Amazon has described its activities as the "essence of competition" in its opposition to the FTC's claims. In the meantime, Amazon is pressing ahead with a wave of AI features for sellers. More than 400,000 sellers globally are using its generative AI features, a number that has roughly doubled in the past two months, Mehta said. Examples include the ability to generate product listings from text, URLs, or images. Another upcoming feature will use AI to generate listings in bulk when sellers upload details of their product catalog. The company is also planning to release a new AI video generator that can automatically create video ads for sellers, at a significant cost savings compared to the normal process of producing and editing product videos. Project Amelia was built on the Amazon Bedrock generative AI platform, which gives the company the flexibility to use different AI models to power the experience over time. Amazon plans to release the Project Amelia beta initially to a set of U.S.-based sellers starting this week, before expanding availability to all U.S. sellers over the coming month or so, followed by an international rollout. The use of the code name signals that the technology may be called something else when it's released in final form.

Amazon's new Project Amelia AI can give you personalised business advice

Amazon has launched a new generative AI-powered personal assistant aimed at helping sellers streamline their businesses. Built on the company's own managed service, AWS Bedrock, the new chatbot branded Project Amelia will deliver tailored insights, advice and business metrics designed to improve productivity and drive growth. The hope is that the Seattle-based ecommerce giant can help independent sellers manage complex business challenges, like product development, compliance, advertising, sales forecasting and inventory management, further reducing the gap between them and more established rivals. Sellers can ask Amelia questions and receive almost instant guidance and, as we've come to expect from generative AI tools, Amelia is designed to learn from a seller's unique business needs to offer personalized insights. Amazon's new seller-destined AI will first roll out across the US with a focus on handling three primary tasks - answering knowledge-based questions, providing business status updates and metrics, and resolving issues. Mary Beth Westmoreland, VP for Worldwide Selling Partner Experience, said: "We are always seeking to equip our selling partners with the most effective tools and capabilities, empowering them to more easily start and grow a successful business." In the near future, Amazon has also committed to helping sellers resolve more complex issues and enabling Amelia to take action on their behalf. The beta version is set to roll out to more US sellers in the coming weeks, with international expansions planned for later this year. Westmoreland added: "This is only the beginning for Project Amelia. As sellers begin interacting with it, the technology will learn and evolve, leading to more comprehensive and personalized responses, with deeper insights and advice specific to sellers' business needs."

Amazon launches Project Amelia, an AI assistant for third-party sellers

Amazon launched a new AI-powered personal assistant for third-party vendors Thursday, one of many new features the company rolled out for its independent sellers this week. The assistant, internally called Project Amelia, answers questions for sellers, offers advice and, down the line, will diagnose problems and take action. Amazon has already integrated generative artificial intelligence into some services for sellers, like the ability to use AI to write suggested product listings, and has launched other AI-powered tools, including the shopping assistant Rufus and the chatbot Q. It is also reportedly working on an upgrade to its personal voice assistant Alexa, using AI to power a new, paid subscription service. Project Amelia will run on Amazon Bedrock, an Amazon Web Services offering that provides different foundational learning models for companies, including Amazon itself, to build and scale AI-powered applications. Amazon has been working on Project Amelia for more than a year, Dharmesh Mehta, vice president for selling partner services, said in an interview Wednesday with The Seattle Times. The project got its name because it was housed in the company's Amelia building in South Lake Union. That building was named in honor of Amelia Earhart. In its beta version, launched Thursday, Project Amelia is able to answer questions about a seller's inventory, sales and customer traffic, as well as offer advice about how to launch a new product or prepare for the upcoming holiday season. It may recommend that a seller add more keywords to a product listing or promote festive items before the holiday. It may also prompt a seller to try Amazon's other services, like Fulfillment by Amazon, a service that third-party sellers can sign up for to use Amazon's fulfillment network to ship orders. Right now, Project Amelia looks and acts like other chatbots on the internet -- a user types a question in a text box at the bottom of the screen and sends it over to Amelia, which takes its time thinking about the response and then generates a few lines of information. The bot then suggests follow-up questions the user may want to ask next. But, Mehta imagines an iteration of Project Amelia that doesn't require as much back and forth. He hopes the assistant could one day offer to take action for the seller. Rather than talking with a seller about the upcoming holidays, he pictures Project Amelia one day offering to set up a 20% discount on festive T-shirts before the holidays. "We're leveraging generative AI throughout the shopping experience, and if we can create a better shopping experience, then customers love the products, they come more often, that's all good for sellers," Mehta said. "We'll keep innovating on the shopping experience [and] if I think about every part of the selling experience, we can continue to reinvent some of those or transform them with generative AI," he continued. Mehta compared Project Amelia's beta version to a concierge service. The assistant takes in all sorts of user questions and then works behind the scenes to find an answer. Sometimes the concierge has to call in a plumber or an electrician to make the fix, but the user doesn't have to know that. In the AI world, the plumbers and electricians are other data models trained to be subject-matter experts on all sorts of topics. In the last three months, Amazon has seen a surge in interest in its AI tools that help sellers write product listings, Mehta said. After launching last year, the company has continued to refine the capabilities and, as more sellers use them, the AI gets smarter, he said. At first, sellers had to input keywords. Then, they could add images or send a URL. Soon, Mehta said, sellers can upload a product catalog and the tool will do the rest. And, Amazon plans to launch a new feature that will use AI to generate advertising videos for sellers. This week, at Amazon's annual conference for third-party sellers, Amazon announced a range of other new services -- like new capabilities to ship products from overseas, a new app for those sellers who use Amazon Shipping and a new offering to automatically replenish products for third-party sellers when inventory runs low. Amazon also announced new partnerships with three other major players in the e-commerce space: Google, TikTok and PayPal. Third-party sellers who use Buy With Prime -- a way for customers to shop using Amazon Prime on third-party websites -- can now display the Prime check mark and estimated delivery speeds on TikTok and Google's shopping platforms. On PayPal, merchants can now offer Prime as a delivery option for shoppers.

Amazon launches Amelia, generative AI-powered assistant for third-party sellers - SiliconANGLE

Amazon launches Amelia, generative AI-powered assistant for third-party sellers Amazon.com Inc. today announced it's rolling out a generative artificial intelligence assistant dubbed Project Amelia for independent sellers to provide answers, advice and tools to boost their productivity and sales. The new AI assistant is currently in beta mode for select Amazon partners in the United States, which will allow sellers to ask questions in English and get guidance about how to efficiently manage their business. "Project Amelia is an always-available, expert partner to sellers, learning their unique businesses so it can offer personalized insights and support, and available from any page within Seller Central, at any time," Mary Beth Westmoreland, vice president of worldwide selling partner Experience at Amazon said in the announcement. Amazon said it built Amelia using Bedrock, the company's managed platform that provides managed access to foundation models from Amazon Web Services and other large language model providers. Developers also gain access to AI tools to build and train models and scale AI applications. Using the platform, the company said it used deep expertise and specialized knowledge of selling on Amazon, giving it the unique ability to provide sellers with relevant responses to their needs. Seller Central is a web-based dashboard that Amazon independent merchants use to manage their business stores. It's a central hub for them to list and price products, create, update and set product information, manage inventory, fulfill orders, track performance and create promotions. Using Amelia, sellers can ask questions such as "What are the top things I need to prepare for the holiday season?" The assistant will reply with personalized information about best practices related to inventory and best practices related to the particular merchant's inventory and past customer sales metrics. Allowing them to prepare product lineups for surges in interest, pick categories that were top sellers in previous seasons and what kind of promotions will work best to put them in front of the most shoppers. Users can also ask Amelia to provide current sales data and traffic information to provide visibility with questions such as, "How is my business doing?" This will have the AI give a summary of sales, units sold and website traffic in an easy-to-read format. From there, sellers can ask follow-up questions to get a deeper understanding of how sales have been going for specific categories or products. Amazon said that the AI will soon be able to offer resolution for complex problems as well such as if there's a logistics or reporting issue within the system. For example, they could tell the AI, "I have 500 units on the way but that's not reflected in the system. Can I have someone look into this for me?" The AI would then help guide the seller through the proper remediation channels, including connecting them with support. In the future, Amazon said Amelia would be able to offer to resolve certain issues on the seller's behalf. "By streamlining sellers' operational demands and burdens, Project Amelia will reduce the time and effort required by sellers to manage their business, which they can reinvest in their growth," said Westmoreland. As mentioned above, Amelia is currently available in beta mode for an initial set of U.S. sellers and will progressively roll out to additional U.S. sellers in the coming weeks. The AI assistant is set to begin a phased expansion to additional countries later this year and will become available in languages other than English.

Amazon launches Amelia, generative AI-powered assist for third-party sellers - SiliconANGLE

Amazon launches Amelia, generative AI-powered assist for third-party sellers Amazon.com Inc. today announced it's rolling out a generative artificial intelligence assistant dubbed Project Amelia for independent sellers to provide answers, advice and tools to boost their productivity and sales. The new AI assistant is currently in beta mode for select Amazon partners in the United States, which will allow sellers to ask questions in English and get guidance about how to efficiently manage their business. "Project Amelia is an always-available, expert partner to sellers, learning their unique businesses so it can offer personalized insights and support, and available from any page within Seller Central, at any time," Mary Beth Westmoreland, vice president of worldwide selling partner Experience at Amazon said in the announcement. Amazon said it built Amelia using Bedrock, the company's managed platform that provides managed access to foundation models from Amazon Web Services and other large language model providers. Developers also gain access to AI tools to build and train models and scale AI applications. Using the platform, the company said it used deep expertise and specialized knowledge of selling on Amazon, giving it the unique ability to provide sellers with relevant responses to their needs. Seller Central is a web-based dashboard that Amazon independent merchants use to manage their business stores. It's a central hub for them to list and price products, create, update and set product information, manage inventory, fulfill orders, track performance and create promotions. Using Amelia, sellers can ask questions such as "What are the top things I need to prepare for the holiday season?" The assistant will reply with personalized information about best practices related to inventory and best practices related to the particular merchant's inventory and past customer sales metrics. Allowing them to prepare product lineups for surges in interest, pick categories that were top sellers in previous seasons and what kind of promotions will work best to put them in front of the most shoppers. Users can also ask Amelia to provide current sales data and traffic information to provide visibility with questions such as, "How is my business doing?" This will have the AI give a summary of sales, units sold and website traffic in an easy-to-read format. From there, sellers can ask follow-up questions to get a deeper understanding of how sales have been going for specific categories or products. Amazon said that the AI will soon be able to offer resolution for complex problems as well such as if there's a logistics or reporting issue within the system. For example, they could tell the AI, "I have 500 units on the way but that's not reflected in the system. Can I have someone look into this for me?" The AI would then help guide the seller through the proper remediation channels, including connecting them with support. In the future, Amazon said Amelia would be able to offer to resolve certain issues on the seller's behalf. "By streamlining sellers' operational demands and burdens, Project Amelia will reduce the time and effort required by sellers to manage their business, which they can reinvest in their growth," said Westmoreland. As mentioned above, Amelia is currently available in beta mode for an initial set of U.S. sellers and will progressively roll out to additional U.S. sellers in the coming weeks. The AI assistant is set to begin a phased expansion to additional countries later this year and will become available in languages other than English.

Amazon's Project Amelia and Other AI Assistants Give Merchants Edge, Analysts Say | PYMNTS.com

Amazon's launch of an AI-powered selling assistant could significantly impact eCommerce operations, analysts say. Project Amelia, as the tool is codenamed, offers sellers personalized business insights and support through generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Experts suggest this could streamline operations for online merchants, potentially leveling the playing field for smaller businesses on Amazon's platform. While the long-term effects remain to be seen, analysts believe the tool's ability to provide instant, tailored advice and data analysis could reduce barriers to entry and intensify competition in the eCommerce space. "Project Amelia can significantly enhance stock prediction capabilities for independent sellers and marketers," Hafez Ramlan, a marketing manager at Atomix Logistics, told PYMNTS. "This is especially beneficial in inventory planning and forecasting, where accurate predictions can help businesses maintain optimal stock levels and avoid both overstock and stockouts." Project Amelia aims to simplify sellers' complex tasks, from understanding regulations to managing inventory. Amazon claims it can quickly answer questions about selling strategies, provide sales data and offer business insights. "Project Amelia provides sellers with an all-in-one, generative AI-based selling expert that is always available to immediately provide sellers with the answers, advice, and tools they need to succeed," Amazon said in its announcement. The AI assistant is built using Amazon Bedrock and combines general knowledge with specific expertise about Amazon's marketplace. It's accessible from pages in Amazon's Seller Central. The assistant can answer queries about Amazon's policies and selling strategies by pulling information from Seller Central and other sources, the company said. It also provides access to business metrics, allowing sellers to view sales data, customer traffic information, and performance comparisons over time. Amazon said Amelia will learn from seller interactions and become more personalized. Currently, Project Amelia is available to some U.S. sellers in a beta test. Amazon said it plans to expand its availability and add more features over time, including the ability to resolve issues directly. Ramlan said Amelia's inventory capabilities will be more critical during peak periods, like the holiday season, when demand fluctuations are at their highest. "By using AI-driven insights, sellers can streamline their operations, reducing inefficiencies and enabling them to scale more efficiently by focusing on customer satisfaction and resource management," he said. While Amazon may make it easy for people to sell their products through the site, Edward Tian, CEO of GPTZero, told PYMNTS that many people still need help creating sales. "Especially when sellers don't have any background in things like SEO and marketing their products, they can really struggle with getting the visibility to their products in the first place," he said. "A tool like Project Amelia could help these sellers adjust their efforts to improve things like visibility." Amazon isn't alone in developing AI tools for eCommerce. Several platforms have launched similar assistants to help online sellers manage their businesses more effectively. Shopify's Sidekick, for example, acts as a virtual colleague for merchants. It can write product descriptions, suggest marketing strategies, and even help optimize store layouts. For instance, a seller struggling with product copy can ask Sidekick to generate engaging descriptions based on key features. Meanwhile, eBay has taken a different approach, focusing on AI-generated imagery. Its tool allows sellers to describe an item, and AI creates professional-looking photos for listings. This can be particularly useful for sellers who need more photography skills or equipment. Etsy's AI assistant specializes in improving product discoverability. It helps sellers generate effective tags and titles, potentially boosting their items' visibility in search results. Meta and Google have also entered the space. Meta's AI handles customer inquiries on WhatsApp and Messenger, while Google offers automated email responses in Gmail and AI-powered ad creation.

Amazon introduces Amelia, an AI assistant for third-party sellers

Amazon parcels are prepared for delivery at Amazon's Robotic Fulfillment Centre. Amazon is rolling out an artificial intelligence tool designed to help third-party sellers quickly resolve issues with their accounts and fetch sales and inventory data. The company said Thursday that it's launching the product, called Amelia, in beta for select U.S. sellers, before introducing it more broadly later this year. Amazon describes it as an "all-in-one, generative-AI based selling expert," and is making it accessible through Seller Central, the internal dashboard for third-party merchants. Amelia is the latest generative AI tool that Amazon has brought to market in the past year as it seeks to capitalize on the hype sparked by OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company has introduced an AI-powered shopping assistant named Rufus, a chatbot for businesses dubbed Q and Bedrock, a generative AI service for cloud customers. Amazon also plans to upgrade its Alexa voice assistant with generative AI features, CNBC previously reported, and the company has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI competitor Anthropic, its largest venture deal to date. CEO Andy Jassy told investors earlier this year that the "generative AI opportunity" is almost unprecedented and that increased capital spending is necessary to take advantage of it. "I don't know if any of us has seen a possibility like this in technology in a really long time, for sure since the cloud, perhaps since the internet," Jassy said on the company's first-quarter earnings call in April.

Amazon adds chatbot for its sellers, boosting automation

Amazon announced Amelia during its annual conference in its hometown where many of its roughly 450,000 US independent sellers converge for tips and tricks, and to learn about new products and services. The software, dubbed Amelia, can provide instantaneous answers to broad questions such as how to prepare for the holidays and how a seller's business is performing, including units sold and website traffic. Amazon announced on Thursday a new artificial intelligence application that it says will help its independent sellers with sales metrics, inventory maintenance and product advertising, among other things. The move is part of a broader Big Tech effort to employ the technology for greater automation. The software, dubbed Amelia, can provide instantaneous answers to broad questions such as how to prepare for the holidays and how a seller's business is performing, including units sold and website traffic. Later, the company says, the software will be able to help resolve problems of sellers such as delayed shipments without additional human intervention. In a demonstration of the software for Reuters, Amazon showed how Amelia can quickly call up metrics for a seller, such as sales data. It also made suggestions for preparing for major sales holidays, including promotions and buying advertising on Amazon. Amelia is meant to give sellers "their own personalized expert in selling on Amazon," said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide selling partner services at Amazon. "It needs to be a deep expert in all these kind of core parts of running your selling business." Amazon, which relies on third-parties to supply more than three out of every five units it sells, has had an at-times testy relationship with sellers, particularly over fees. By automating some of the seller customer service, Amazon may be able to more inexpensively handle complaints and other difficulties that would otherwise require human intervention. The Seattle retailer announced Amelia during its annual conference in its hometown where many of its roughly 450,000 U.S. independent sellers converge for tips and tricks, and to learn about new products and services. Amelia follows the announcement earlier this year of Rufus, a generative AI search engine Amazon added to its website to help customers find more products. Amazon has since started selling advertising within Rufus, suggesting it may let marketers pay in exchange for the software's recommendation. It has also rolled out a corporate chatbot and is working to improve its Alexa voice assistant by updating it with a more conversational AI. Amazon boosted capital expenditure in this year's second quarter to about $16.5 billion from $14 billion in the first quarter, driven in large part by AI investments. Since the release in late 2022 of ChatGPT, Silicon Valley has seen an investing frenzy over generative AI which can create full sentence responses to prompts or create lifelike images or sounds. But generative AI software can invent answers, known as hallucinations, when it lacks sufficient training data. Mehta said Amelia could hallucinate and such occasions would be addressed depending on the severity of the mistake. He said Amazon had no plans to offer ads within Amelia. The service will not be made available in its current form to large brands such as Unilever, who also sell on Amazon, he said. Amazon said Amelia will initially be available only to a small subset of sellers and only in English before nearly all US sellers gain access over the next month.

Amazon adds chatbot for its sellers, boosting automation

Amazon.com announced on Thursday a new artificial intelligence application that it says will help its independent sellers with sales metrics, inventory maintenance and product advertising, among other things. The move is part of a broader Big Tech effort to employ the technology for greater automation. The software, dubbed Amelia, can provide instantaneous answers to broad questions such as how to prepare for the holidays and how a seller's business is performing, including units sold and website traffic. Later, the company says, the software will be able to help resolve problems of sellers such as delayed shipments without additional human intervention. In a demonstration of the software for Reuters, Amazon showed how Amelia can quickly call up metrics for a seller, such as sales data. It also made suggestions for preparing for major sales holidays, including promotions and buying advertising on Amazon.com. Amelia is meant to give sellers "their own personalized expert in selling on Amazon," said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide selling partner services at Amazon. "It needs to be a deep expert in all these kind of core parts of running your selling business." Amazon, which relies on third-parties to supply more than three out of every five units it sells, has had an at-times testy relationship with sellers, particularly over fees. Amazon launches AI-powered shopping assistant chatbot Rufus in India By automating some of the seller customer service, Amazon may be able to more inexpensively handle complaints and other difficulties that would otherwise require human intervention. The Seattle retailer announced Amelia during its annual conference in its hometown where many of its roughly 450,000 U.S. independent sellers converge for tips and tricks, and to learn about new products and services. Amelia follows the announcement earlier this year of Rufus, a generative AI search engine Amazon added to its website to help customers find more products. Amazon has since started selling advertising within Rufus, suggesting it may let marketers pay in exchange for the software's recommendation. It has also rolled out a corporate chatbot and is working to improve its Alexa voice assistant by updating it with a more conversational AI. Amazon boosted capital expenditure in this year's second quarter to about $16.5 billion from $14 billion in the first quarter, driven in large part by AI investments. Since the release in late 2022 of ChatGPT, Silicon Valley has seen an investing frenzy over generative AI which can create full sentence responses to prompts or create lifelike images or sounds. But generative AI software can invent answers, known as hallucinations, when it lacks sufficient training data. Mehta said Amelia could hallucinate and such occasions would be addressed depending on the severity of the mistake. He said Amazon had no plans to offer ads within Amelia. The service will not be made available in its current form to large brands such as Unilever, who also sell on Amazon, he said. Amazon said Amelia will initially be available only to a small subset of sellers and only in English before nearly all U.S. sellers gain access over the next month. Published - September 20, 2024 10:19 am IST Read Comments

Amazon just released new AI tools for sellers -- but here's what it means for shoppers

Amazon's latest AI, 'Amelia,' is a seller's dream that lets you shop easier. This week at the Amazon Accelerate event, Amazon announced a suite of generative AI tools to enhance the shopping experience. Based on how much I shop, the verdict is still out if this is something I should celebrate. The AI assistant, codename Project Amelia, is now in beta and available to U.S. sellers. Let me explain why this is exciting news for consumers. You might remember that earlier this year we were introduced to "Rufus," a chatbot that lives at the bottom right of the navigation bar in the Amazon app and offers suggestions, product comparisons and recommendations. If you haven't given it a whirl, try it. Good ol' Rufus has helped me make some buying decisions that I didn't even run by my husband. Shhh... But now that sellers have a toolbox of innovative solutions with the AI Project Amelia, the shopping experience for customers should be even better. Generative AI comes into play for a number of important seller needs such as resolving supply chain issues, anticipating needs within the storefront, and improving customer service. For shoppers, that means less time waiting for something to come back in stock and getting immediate answers to your questions (i.e. is this a child-sized Fortnite costume or adult?) without waiting on a human to respond. Although designed for sellers, Project Amelia could improve the platform and help it deliver a more intuitive and tailored shopping experience. Amazon has looked to AI increasingly as a way to improve their site in a variety of avenues. For example, AI-generated summaries of product reviews give a rundown of what customers are saying about products so you don't have to read all the reviews. Amelia will make it easier for sellers to write listings and generate images for their ads. Additionally, Amazon's vast AI infrastructure helps customers find exactly what they need through conversational AI, and offers a more detailed, real-time shopping experience with recommendations on the homepage. In an effort to streamline purchasing patterns and target you with the right ads on social media, Amazon wants to seamlessly support you as you shop online. These enhancements are likely to expand further in the future, letting you cut down on the use of third-party apps to find exactly what you're looking for on the site. Clearly, Amazon wants us to shop 'til we drop, but now AI will ensure that sellers perfect the experience until we do. With Amazon leveraging its massive AI capabilities to give us more convenience, we may not only save time and money, but the experience could be more enjoyable. As these technologies continue to evolve, we can expect even more sophisticated shopping tools that further blur the line between browsing and buying.

Amazon Connects Independent Sellers to Customized GenAI Assistant | PYMNTS.com

Amazon is going all in on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for its independent seller community. Announced Thursday (Sept. 19) at its Amazon Accelerate event in Seattle, a new GenAI initiative is aimed at easing the complexities independent sellers face using its platform and continues its current theme of connecting independent sellers to retail and logistics technology. Dubbed Project Amelia, it is a personal assistant designed to help sellers streamline business operations and scale their businesses more efficiently. "As a technologist I always believed that a pragmatic approach is necessary," Mary Beth Westmoreland, VP worldwide selling partner experience, told PYMNTS. "It can't be technology for technology's sake. Practical applications are the outcome technology should achieve." With millions of third-party sellers using the platform, Amazon's marketplace accounts for more than 60% of the company's eCommerce sales, and the Accelerate event was filled with announcements and upgrades to the services Amazon extends to its sellers to navigate and succeed. "Running a global selling business on Amazon involves managing a wide range of tasks, from product development and marketing to regulatory compliance and inventory management," Westmoreland said. "Amazon provides various tools and services to assist with these responsibilities, but Project Amelia is designed to simplify the process even further." A demo of Project Amelia showcased the ability of a seller to submit a general query that would then be turned into an intelligence report with advice on expansion, new inventory or logistics information. For example, if an apparel seller asks, "What product lines should I expand into?" Amelia gives back an answer customized to the company's current inventory as well as market trends. If the seller asks for a status report on sales, it gets a complete report on current revenue, year-to-date updates, and performance vs. projections. The AI will be accessible from any page within Amazon's Seller Central platform, where merchants manage their Amazon businesses. Project Amelia is built on Amazon Bedrock, the company's foundation for scalable GenAI applications. This infrastructure provides access to the latest foundation models, which are tailored for specific business use cases. In Amelia's case, it combines vast amounts of general world knowledge with Amazon-specific expertise. According to Amazon, this allows Amelia to offer more than just standard AI assistance; the assistant is deeply informed about the unique challenges and opportunities of selling on Amazon. Amelia's responses are crafted to help sellers navigate the platform's intricacies and, over time, the AI will provide more personalized guidance. "The long-term goal is for Amelia not only to offer advice but to anticipate sellers' needs and resolve issues proactively," Westmoreland said. The functionality of Project Amelia revolves around three primary areas: knowledge-based questions, business metrics updates and issue resolution. Project Amelia's current beta version is accessible to a select group of U.S. sellers, with plans to expand the program to additional U.S. sellers in the coming weeks. By the end of the year, Amazon aims to roll out Amelia to more countries and introduce support for languages beyond English. As the AI evolves, Amazon envisions Amelia taking on a more proactive role in managing sellers' operations. Amelia will reduce the time and effort required by sellers to manage their business, which they can reinvest in their growth, Westmoreland said.

Amazon adds chatbot for its sellers, boosting automation

(Reuters) - Amazon.com announced on Thursday a new artificial intelligence application that it says will help its independent sellers with sales metrics, inventory maintenance and product advertising, among other things. The move is part of a broader Big Tech effort to employ the technology for greater automation. The software, dubbed Amelia, can provide instantaneous answers to broad questions such as how to prepare for the holidays and how a seller's business is performing, including units sold and website traffic. Later, the company says, the software will be able to help resolve problems of sellers such as delayed shipments without additional human intervention. In a demonstration of the software for Reuters, Amazon showed how Amelia can quickly call up metrics for a seller, such as sales data. It also made suggestions for preparing for major sales holidays, including promotions and buying advertising on Amazon.com. Amelia is meant to give sellers "their own personalized expert in selling on Amazon," said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide selling partner services at Amazon. "It needs to be a deep expert in all these kind of core parts of running your selling business." Amazon, which relies on third-parties to supply more than three out of every five units it sells, has had an at-times testy relationship with sellers, particularly over fees. By automating some of the seller customer service, Amazon may be able to more inexpensively handle complaints and other difficulties that would otherwise require human intervention. The Seattle retailer announced Amelia during its annual conference in its hometown where many of its roughly 450,000 U.S. independent sellers converge for tips and tricks, and to learn about new products and services. Amelia follows the announcement earlier this year of Rufus, a generative AI search engine Amazon added to its website to help customers find more products. Amazon has since started selling advertising within Rufus, suggesting it may let marketers pay in exchange for the software's recommendation. It has also rolled out a corporate chatbot and is working to improve its Alexa voice assistant by updating it with a more conversational AI. Amazon boosted capital expenditure in this year's second quarter to about $16.5 billion from $14 billion in the first quarter, driven in large part by AI investments. Since the release in late 2022 of ChatGPT, Silicon Valley has seen an investing frenzy over generative AI which can create full sentence responses to prompts or create lifelike images or sounds. But generative AI software can invent answers, known as hallucinations, when it lacks sufficient training data. Mehta said Amelia could hallucinate and such occasions would be addressed depending on the severity of the mistake. He said Amazon had no plans to offer ads within Amelia. The service will not be made available in its current form to large brands such as Unilever, who also sell on Amazon, he said. Amazon said Amelia will initially be available only to a small subset of sellers and only in English before nearly all U.S. sellers gain access over the next month. (Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Amazon adds chatbot for its sellers, boosting automation

Later, the company says, the software will be able to help resolve problems of sellers such as delayed shipments without additional human intervention. In a demonstration of the software for Reuters, Amazon showed how Amelia can quickly call up metrics for a seller, such as sales data. It also made suggestions for preparing for major sales holidays, including promotions and buying advertising on Amazon.com. Amelia is meant to give sellers "their own personalized expert in selling on Amazon," said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide selling partner services at Amazon. "It needs to be a deep expert in all these kind of core parts of running your selling business." Amazon, which relies on third-parties to supply more than three out of every five units it sells, has had an at-times testy relationship with sellers, particularly over fees. By automating some of the seller customer service, Amazon may be able to more inexpensively handle complaints and other difficulties that would otherwise require human intervention. The Seattle retailer announced Amelia during its annual conference in its hometown where many of its roughly 450,000 U.S. independent sellers converge for tips and tricks, and to learn about new products and services. Amelia follows the announcement earlier this year of Rufus, a generative AI search engine Amazon added to its website to help customers find more products. Amazon has since started selling advertising within Rufus, suggesting it may let marketers pay in exchange for the software's recommendation. It has also rolled out a corporate chatbot and is working to improve its Alexa voice assistant by updating it with a more conversational AI. Amazon boosted capital expenditure in this year's second quarter to about $16.5 billion from $14 billion in the first quarter, driven in large part by AI investments. Since the release in late 2022 of ChatGPT, Silicon Valley has seen an investing frenzy over generative AI which can create full sentence responses to prompts or create lifelike images or sounds. But generative AI software can invent answers, known as hallucinations, when it lacks sufficient training data. Mehta said Amelia could hallucinate and such occasions would be addressed depending on the severity of the mistake. He said Amazon had no plans to offer ads within Amelia. The service will not be made available in its current form to large brands such as Unilever, who also sell on Amazon, he said. Amazon said Amelia will initially be available only to a small subset of sellers and only in English before nearly all U.S. sellers gain access over the next month. (Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Amazon Launches AI Assistant to Help Online Merchants Prosper

Amazon.com Inc. is launching an artificially intelligent assistant designed to help online merchants manage their businesses. Codenamed Project Amelia, the new tool will answer a range of questions, from how to prepare for the holiday shopping season to suggesting the wording of product listings, Amazon said Thursday during its annual Accelerate conference for merchants.

Amazon adds chatbot for its sellers, boosting automation

Sept 19 (Reuters) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab announced on Thursday a new artificial intelligence application that it says will help its independent sellers with sales metrics, inventory maintenance and product advertising, among other things. The move is part of a broader Big Tech effort to employ the technology for greater automation. The software, dubbed Amelia, can provide instantaneous answers to broad questions such as how to prepare for the holidays and how a seller's business is performing, including units sold and website traffic. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Later, the company says, the software will be able to help resolve problems of sellers such as delayed shipments without additional human intervention. In a demonstration of the software for Reuters, Amazon showed how Amelia can quickly call up metrics for a seller, such as sales data. It also made suggestions for preparing for major sales holidays, including promotions and buying advertising on Amazon.com. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Amelia is meant to give sellers "their own personalized expert in selling on Amazon," said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of worldwide selling partner services at Amazon. "It needs to be a deep expert in all these kind of core parts of running your selling business." Amazon, which relies on third-parties to supply more than three out of every five units it sells, has had an at-times testy relationship with sellers, particularly over fees. By automating some of the seller customer service, Amazon may be able to more inexpensively handle complaints and other difficulties that would otherwise require human intervention. The Seattle retailer announced Amelia during its annual conference in its hometown where many of its roughly 450,000 U.S. independent sellers converge for tips and tricks, and to learn about new products and services. Amelia follows the announcement earlier this year of Rufus, a generative AI search engine Amazon added to its website to help customers find more products. Amazon has since started selling advertising within Rufus, suggesting it may let marketers pay in exchange for the software's recommendation. It has also rolled out a corporate chatbot and is working to improve its Alexa voice assistant by updating it with a more conversational AI. Amazon boosted capital expenditure in this year's second quarter to about $16.5 billion from $14 billion in the first quarter, driven in large part by AI investments. Since the release in late 2022 of ChatGPT, Silicon Valley has seen an investing frenzy over generative AI which can create full sentence responses to prompts or create lifelike images or sounds. But generative AI software can invent answers, known as hallucinations, when it lacks sufficient training data. Mehta said Amelia could hallucinate and such occasions would be addressed depending on the severity of the mistake. He said Amazon had no plans to offer ads within Amelia. The service will not be made available in its current form to large brands such as Unilever (ULVR.L), opens new tab, who also sell on Amazon, he said. Amazon said Amelia will initially be available only to a small subset of sellers and only in English before nearly all U.S. sellers gain access over the next month. Reporting by Greg Bensinger; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Greg Bensinger Thomson Reuters Greg Bensinger joined Reuters as a technology correspondent in 2022 focusing on the world's largest technology companies. He was previously a member of The New York Times editorial board and a technology beat reporter for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He also worked for Bloomberg News writing about the auto and telecommunications industries. He studied English literature at The University of Virginia and graduate journalism at Columbia University. Greg lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.