Amazon is expanding its AI-powered shopping experience. Announced on September 3, the new feature, Lens Live, is a real-time extension of its existing visual search feature, Amazon Lens, that allows users to point their smartphone camera at objects around them in real time and Amazon will instantly find and show similar products. The feature is initially available to tens of millions of users in the U.S. on the Amazon Shopping app for iOS, and will be rolled out over time.
Lens Live is a complement to Amazon Lens, not a replacement. Whereas traditional Amazon Lens lets you search for products by uploading an image or scanning a barcode, Lens Live lets you simply turn on your camera to automatically recognize things around you and show you that product or similar products in a bottom carousel. Users can tap on a product they like to add it to their cart or save it to their wishlist.
This feature is powered by Amazon's machine learning platform, SageMaker, and search engine, OpenSearch, and works in conjunction with Rufus, our AI shopping assistant. With Rufus, users can get an AI summary of a product or suggested questions to help them better understand the product before making a purchase decision.
Amazon has been steadily introducing AI-powered shopping features over the past year or so. In addition to Rufus, our AI shopping assistant, we're experimenting with AI-powered shopping guides, clothing fit recommendation tools, voice-based product summaries, personalized shopping prompts, and AI tools for sellers.
Lens Live stands out among these attempts because it directly captures and reflects real-world comparison shopping behavior. When you're looking at an item in a brick-and-mortar store, you can instantly find the same product or a cheaper variant on Amazon, making price comparisons and product browsing much easier for users.
In fact, users can tap on a specific product within the camera view to start matching around that product, and a carousel of similar products is presented. Rufus' product description summaries and AI question-answering capabilities make it easy to do a little research at the same time.
Lens Live is currently available to iOS users in the U.S. first, and will be rolling out to more users in the coming weeks. No Android support or global expansion plans have yet been revealed.
