Amazon has started letting some U.S. customers shop by sending text messages to Alexa for Shopping, its AI shopping assistant. Beginning on Nov. 6, a small group of customers is getting a text inviting them to try it, and Amazon says the option will reach millions more customers across the U.S. in the coming weeks. The assistant shows up in a phone's contacts as "Alexa Shopping."
Amazon calls Alexa for Shopping an AI agent: AI that can carry out tasks on its own, such as using apps and websites, instead of only answering questions. By text, Amazon says, it can search for products, compare options, fill a cart, finish a purchase on a customer's behalf and send delivery updates. A shopper can text "I'm out of dog food" and get product suggestions back, or send a photo of a recipe to have the ingredients added to the cart. Amazon says it reorders an item "with your approval," and that shoppers can tell it to add items to their cart automatically.
To start, invited customers accept the terms and link their phone number. Those without an invite can sign up on an Amazon page to get news and offers from Amazon by text, and will be among the first to hear when more invites go out. The assistant itself is free to all signed-in Amazon customers in the U.S., with no Echo speaker, Alexa app or Prime membership needed, according to Amazon's launch page from May.
Amazon says it is starting to let a request begun by text carry over to its shopping app, its website and Alexa devices, and back again, and that the assistant remembers what shoppers tell it, such as "only show me organic options." Amazon says more than 400 million customers have used Alexa for Shopping in the last 12 months. That 12 months reaches back before May, when Amazon combined its earlier shopping assistant Rufus with Alexa+ and gave the assistant its name, so the count is not a measure of texting, which began on Nov. 6.
The rollout follows Amazon's recent move to block Meta's Muse AI shopping agent from Amazon's store, saying the tool appeared to get in without permission and to keep customers' login details, according to a news report.