Amazon is introducing Alexa for Shopping, a personalised AI assistant for US customers on the Amazon Shopping app and web site, and Echo Show devices.

Alexa for Shopping combines deep product knowledge, in-depth information from across the web, and personal preferences, shopping history and conversations from across both Amazon.com and Alexa.

Customers can use Alexa for Shopping to ask questions directly in the main Amazon search bar, create personalised shopping guides for big purchases, get category and product insights in search results and on product pages, generate dynamic product comparisons, view up to a year of price history, and automate deal-finding, cart-building and routine purchases based on personalised insights.

All Amazon customers can use Alexa for Shopping on the Amazon Shopping app and web site, no Prime membership or Echo device required. In addition, the full Amazon store experience is available on Echo Show.

Customers already rely on Alexa+, available across hundreds of millions of devices, Alexa.com, and the Alexa app for answering questions, researching topics, managing smart homes, coordinating family events, making reservations and staying entertained.

By bringing together product expertise and Amazon shopping history with the personalised knowledge and context of Alexa+, Alexa for Shopping delivers a personal shopping experience across a wide range of surfaces and devices from the Amazon Shopping app and web site to Echo Show, where customers can browse and shop the full Amazon store using voice, touch or both.

What users share with Alexa on their Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices informs their shopping experience on Amazon, and their conversations, browsing and purchases on Amazon make Alexa more helpful across all experiences, including on Amazon.com.

Conversations and preferences flow in both directions, making Alexa for Shopping more personal and more helpful over time. It can help users find the best products, compare categories and items, provide personalised recommendations and guidance, track prices, buy items at a target price, reorder essentials, manage the cart, and shop from other online stores across the web.

“Alexa for Shopping is like having an expert personal shopper who already knows you and remembers your preferences, your past purchases and your conversations, and carries that knowledge and understanding of you across your phone, laptop and Echo devices,” said Rajiv Mehta, vice president at Amazon. “Whether you’re comparing products, tracking a price drop, or continuing research you started yesterday, you don’t have to start over.”

For example, say someone asks Alexa on their Echo to remember their nephew’s fifth birthday. A couple of weeks before the big day, they open the Amazon Shopping app and ask Alexa for Shopping to help pick out gifts. It suggests age-appropriate options that will arrive on time, from building sets to popular action figures.

In the Amazon Shopping app, users can ask Alexa for Shopping questions in the Amazon search bar as well as the dedicated Alexa for Shopping chat window. If they use the main search bar, the search experience recognises when they’re asking a question and Alexa for Shopping can help answer it.

They can select multiple products directly from their search results and Alexa for Shopping will compare them side by side, helping quickly evaluate features, prices and reviews to find the best option.

Alexa for Shopping surfaces AI-generated overviews at the top of search results in the Amazon Shopping app, giving a quick summary of a product category and what to look for before browsing. There are also AI overviews on product detail pages to help users make more informed purchase decisions. The feature is already available to millions of customers and rolling out to all US shoppers.

Users can shop other retailers, discovering hundreds of millions of products in Amazon’s store and from stores across the web through Shop Direct.

Alexa for Shopping can search past orders and add them to the cart or quickly build new carts with conversational directions. Users can view and update details such as family members, pets, interests, dietary needs and more by simply asking Alexa for Shopping what it knows.

Alexa for Shopping (www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/how-to-use-amazon-shopping-ai-assistant) can create a custom shopping guide that compares features, prices and reviews across Amazon and the web based on what matters most to the user. It also uses existing capabilities such as snapping a photo to use visual search, finding deals based on browsing history and shopping lists, searching for items by price range, setting price alerts, and Auto Buying items at a set price.

Users can also track packages and check order status through conversation.