Amazon Is Experimenting With 'Buy For Me' Agentic AI: What It Could Mean For Online Shoppers
Amazon offers AI shopping features such as "Buy for Me" and "Amazon Bedrock" to enhance the shopping experience. The Anthropic Claude is an AI-powered shopping tool that enables automated checkout. Users can also make third-party purchases on Amazon or shop directly from brand sites for a seamless shopping experience.
Amazon is experimenting with a new AI-driven shopping feature that allows users to buy products from external websites on their own. Dubbed "Buy for Me," this feature is currently in beta and is being tested with a limited number of users in the U.S. via Amazon’s Android and iOS apps. The company describes it as an "agentic" AI-powered tool that leverages both native and third-party AI models to automate purchases. However, during this test phase, only select products from specific brand websites can be bought using this feature.
How Amazon’s "Buy for Me" Works
Amazon first introduced the idea of listing products from external websites last month under the “Shop brand sites directly” section. This allowed users to view and buy items that weren’t available directly on Amazon. However, with the introduction of Buy for Me, Amazon is now taking things a step further by automating the checkout process—eliminating the need for users to leave the app to complete a purchase.
Here’s how it works:
- Users can search for products that aren’t sold directly by Amazon but appear with the “Shop brand sites directly” label.
- Tapping on an item brings up a detailed product page within the Amazon app.
- If they decide to purchase, they can click the "Buy for Me" button, which redirects them to an Amazon checkout page.
- After confirming the delivery address, taxes, shipping fees, and payment method, the AI agent takes over and finalizes the purchase on their behalf.
Amazon emphasizes that AI securely transmits users’ encrypted names, addresses, and payment details to third-party websites. However, the company does not have access to past or separate orders made on external sites.
Managing Orders and Customer Support
Although Amazon facilitates the transaction, the actual delivery, returns, exchanges, and customer service are handled by the third-party retailer. Users, however, can still track their orders within the "Your Order" page under the Buy for Me Orders tab in the Amazon app.
AI Technology Behind "Buy for Me"
While Amazon hasn’t disclosed extensive technical details, it has confirmed that Buy for Me runs on Amazon Bedrock and is powered by its in-house Nova models along with Anthropic’s Claude models. This latest move highlights Amazon’s growing reliance on AI to enhance the shopping experience, making online purchases more seamless and efficient.