Amazon Expands AI-Powered Visual Search Capabilities
In a blog post, Amazon said that the new features are aimed at bridging the gap between what customers imagine and the products they ultimately discover on the platform. The new AI-powered search experience can generate images in real time as users type product descriptions into the Amazon Shopping app. Rather than relying on exact product terminologies, shoppers can simply describe attributes like colour, texture, or design.
The feature will generate AI images that appear beneath the search bar. After this, they can then tap the image that best matches what they have in mind to browse similar products. The e-commerce giant says AI-powered search currently supports apparel and home categories.
Amazon is also introducing “Shop by Style”, which can display AI-generated shoppable collages in search results. It is claimed to deliver curated collections for apparel and accessories and organises them around themes like “Urban Luxe” or “Soft Elegance”.
The company has also upgraded Amazon Lens with a new ‘Lens Live’ feature. As the name suggests, it can analyse products seen through the phone’s viewfinder and display matching items in an interactive carousel in real time. Amazon says customers can use this feature to compare products, add them to their wishlist or cart without leaving the interface. Lens Live also features Alexa integration, enabling users to ask contextual questions about products.
Other notable search refinement tools include Visual Suggestions, which can provide image-based filters for broad searches. Users can also add text prompts to uploaded images in Amazon Lens.
The Amazon app for iOS also has a new Amazon Lens widget for the home screen. The company claims it provides one-tap access to camera-based product searches. The “More Like This” functionality has also been expanded to allow users to quickly find visually similar products from search results. Lastly, there is Circle to Search as well. The visual lookup tool allows shoppers to highlight a specific object within an uploaded image and search for it independently.
The new visual search capabilities are currently rolling out to customers in the US through the Amazon Shopping app on Android and iOS.
