Amazon is introducing a way for customers to shop through text messages with its Alexa AI agent, just before the holiday shopping season. Select customers in the U.S. will be invited to use the feature, which can search for products, add items to carts and make purchases from natural-language requests.
The text agent can also manage shopping lists, track prices, search across the web, compare products and check order status, Amazon said. Customers can send a picture of an item or of someone wearing an outfit to find similar listings on Amazon. The company said Alexa may learn users’ preferences over time and make suggestions based on them.
Customers who are not invited can join a waitlist. Amazon plans to broaden access in the coming weeks. The feature builds on recent shopping-focused upgrades to Alexa.
The launch follows Amazon’s move in September to block Meta’s Muse from querying its site. As companies compete to develop consumer AI agents, Amazon is building its own text-based service. Delivery company DoorDash said last month that third-party agents had placed only hundreds of orders in total on its platform, and said it would focus on developing its own agent, launched in September.
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