Text-Based Shopping
Amazon is launching a feature that lets customers chat with its Alexa AI agent over text messages to help them shop using natural language queries.
The rollout follows Amazon blocking external AI agents from querying its site and arrives just ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Select U.S. customers will receive a text inviting them to enable the shopping feature, allowing them to search for items, add products to their cart, and complete purchases entirely via text.
Image Credits:Amazon
Capabilities and Features
The text agent builds on recent shopping-focused upgrades to Alexa, managing lists, tracking prices, searching the web, comparing products, and checking order statuses. Users can also upload photos of items or outfits to find similar listings.
Amazon stated that over time, the system will learn individual user preferences to offer tailored suggestions.
Availability
Users not initially invited can join a waitlist, with broader availability scheduled for the coming weeks.
As consumer-facing AI agents expand, major platforms are increasingly developing proprietary text-based interfaces to manage user interactions directly.
