Amazon is testing a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that can purchase products from other websites on the users’ behalf. Announced on Thursday, the “Buy for Me” feature is currently available in beta to select users via its Android and iOS apps. The e-commerce giant says that it is an agentic feature which is powered by native and third-party AI models. Since Amazon is currently testing the feature, only some products from specific brand websites can be purchased using Buy for Me.
Amazon’s Buy for Me Uses Nova and Claude AI Models
In a newsroom post, the tech giant announced the release of the Buy for Me feature in beta. This feature arrives a month after Amazon began listing products from other websites on its platform in a new section dubbed “Shop brand sites directly.” This addition, also in beta, allows buyers to see products that the e-commerce giant does not carry. If a user prefers to buy the product, they are redirected to the brand’s website.
Now, with Buy for Me, Amazon is reducing the friction of the shopping experience by deploying an AI agent that will automatically purchase the product so that the user does not have to leave the app. Notably, the feature is currently available to select users in the US on a limited number of products via the Android and iOS apps.
Amazon Buy for Me feature
Photo Credit: Amazon
To use the AI-powered feature, users will have to search for products that aren’t available on Amazon and appear with the “Shop brand sites directly” label. Once a user taps on an item, they will be taken to a product detail page within the app where they can see relevant information to learn more about the product.
If the user decides to buy the product, they can tap on the Buy for Me button on the page. It will redirect the user to an Amazon checkout page where they can confirm the delivery address, taxes and shipping fees, and payment method. The AI agent takes over after this and makes the purchase. The company says the agent securely provides the user’s encrypted name, address, and payment details to the third-party website. Notably, the e-commerce giant cannot access previous or separate orders from other brands’ websites.
While Amazon will be making the purchase, delivery, returns, exchanges, and customer service are managed by the third-party website. Users will, however, be able to track their order via the Your Order page in the Buy for Me Orders tab in the app.
The tech giant did not share details about the AI agent but revealed that it runs on Amazon Bedrock and is powered by the company’s in-house Nova models and Anthropic’s Claude models.
