On Tuesday, September 3rd, Amazon launched "Lens Live," further expanding its investment in AI-powered shopping experiences. This new AI-powered upgrade to its Amazon Lens shopping feature allows consumers to discover new products through visual search, similar to features offered by competitors like Google Lens. Amazon said the tool will also integrate with Rufus, Amazon's AI shopping assistant, to provide users with in-depth product insights.
Amazon Launches New AI Shopping Feature: Lens Live, Allows Users to Find Products by Scanning Their Phone at Physical Objects
Lens Live reportedly does not replace Amazon's existing visual search tool, Amazon Lens. While Lens allows users to find products by taking a photo, uploading an image, or scanning a barcode, Lens Live adds real-time interactivity: users simply point their phone's camera at a real-world object, and a swipeable list of matching products will appear at the bottom of the screen.
This new feature is part of Amazon's efforts to leverage AI to optimize the online shopping experience. Over the past year or so, the company has launched several AI-powered features, including Rufus, an AI assistant, AI-powered shopping guides, AI-powered product reviews, an AI-powered fit recommendation tool, AI-powered audio summaries of products, personalized shopping tips, and specialized AI tools for merchants.
Lens Live also perfectly aligns with existing consumer habits: many consumers compare prices on the same or similar items on Amazon when shopping in physical stores, looking for better deals.
To use Lens Live, users simply tap on any item in the camera viewfinder to trigger the feature and focus on that product. When they find a matching item, they tap the "+" icon to add it to their cart or the heart icon to add it to their wishlist.
This feature is powered by Amazon SageMaker, a service that enables the large-scale deployment of machine learning models, and runs on Amazon OpenSearch, managed by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The new feature also incorporates Rufus, Amazon's AI-powered shopping assistant. Users can view AI-generated product summaries and receive suggested conversational questions to learn more about the product. Amazon says this helps consumers quickly research products and obtain key product information before placing an order.
Currently, Lens Live is available first in the Amazon Shopping app on iOS, initially to "tens of millions" of users in the US, with plans to expand to more users in the US over time. However, Amazon has not yet disclosed whether the feature will be expanded to other global markets.
