Amazon tests artificial intelligence to simplify reviews of thousands of products

() Amazon is experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence to summarize its customers’ opinions about products on the web, which could reduce the time shoppers spend analyzing reviews before making a purchase.

On Amazon’s product page for Apple’s third-generation AirPods, for example, the AI ​​feature now summarizes more than 4,000 user reviews to note that the wireless headphones “have received positive feedback from customers about their quality.” sound and battery life. But, he adds, “there have also been mixed opinions about the performance, durability, fit, comfort and value of headphones.”

The summary includes the clarification: “Generated by AI from customer reviews.”

“We are investing significantly in generative AI across all of our businesses,” Amazon said in a statement to on Monday, referring to the technology that underpins services like ChatGPT.

That investment, first reported by CNBC, represents Amazon’s latest attempt to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into its services and has the potential to help customers quickly determine the pros and cons of various products. But it has limits.

For starters, the words that the AI ​​uses are not always intuitive. In the AirPods review, for example, the message says: “All customers who talked about their stability had a negative opinion about it.”

As with other generative AI tools that are trained on vast amounts of online data, there are also concerns about tone, accuracy, and its potential for erroneous or exaggerated detail.

“Since generative AI is based on probabilities, errors may occur and summaries may not accurately reflect customer sentiment,” says Reece Hayden, an analyst at market research firm ABI Research. “The possibility of erroneous data will worry customers and merchants alike.”

Hayden also wonders if the tool will be able to decipher reviews that are fraudulent or created by bots. “These reviews will be treated the same as the others, and therefore summarizing all of them could reflect false conclusions that are not what customers think,” Hayden said. (Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this matter.)

Amazon isn’t the only e-commerce company that has incorporated generative AI into the shopping experience. Some companies like Shopify and Instacart use this technology to help customers make informed decisions when buying. For its part, eBay has just released an AI tool to help sellers generate product descriptions.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a letter to shareholders in April that the company remains focused on “heavily investing” in technology for “all of our consumer, seller, brand and creator experiences.” The company is also reportedly working on adding ChatGPT-like search capabilities to its e-commerce store, and is rumored to be planning to use generative AI to give a home robot conversational language.

Last month, Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services, told that there’s a lot of interest in bringing generative AI to the virtual assistant Alexa, so users can interact with technology in a more seamless and natural way.