Amazon announced on Wednesday a new artificial intelligence agent designed to help third-party merchants operate their online businesses. This new tool, an upgraded version of the company’s Seller Assistant, will be enhanced with agentic capabilities. This means the software can now take action on a merchant’s behalf with their permission, rather than simply providing information. The announcement was made during Amazon’s annual Accelerate conference for sellers in Seattle.
Amazon says tools like the enhanced Seller Assistant will free merchants to “spend more time focusing on product innovation and customer relationships,” while the generative AI tool handles more tedious operational tasks.
Streamlining Operations and Boosting Growth
Amazon has already released several successful AI tools for third-party sellers, who account for more than half of all goods sold on the site. These include a product listing generator and an image and video generator for ads. According to Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide selling partner services, 1.3 million third-party sellers have already used its generative AI listing tools, which can produce about 70% of a product listing. Mehta says this tool gives sellers a “team of experts” in areas like listing, pricing, promotions, and supply chain management.
The enhanced Seller Assistant goes beyond just answering queries. It is capable of coordinating inventory orders, developing business growth plans, and even implementing fixes for account issues, which could help merchants avoid costly suspensions. Amazon’s new agent is powered by Bedrock, a software tool that gives users access to large language models from Amazon and other companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Amazon says it does not currently plan to charge merchants to use the Seller Assistant.
A Free Tool for a Growing Business
Amazon’s third-party marketplace is a sizable business for the company, bringing in $40.3 billion in the second quarter. The company launched the first iteration of its AI assistant for sellers last September, which was codenamed Project Amelia. That tool allowed merchants to brainstorm listing titles, get advice on inventory planning, and troubleshoot account issues. Amazon expects to add more agentic capabilities to the new Seller Assistant over time based on seller feedback. The company’s AI lab in San Francisco also released a preview of an agent that can take action in a web browser earlier this year.
What The Author Thinks
This new AI agent, while presented as a tool to help small businesses, is a double-edged sword. It gives Amazon an even deeper level of insight into its sellers’ operations, potentially creating a “Trojan horse” effect. While it may simplify tasks for merchants and help them grow, it could also make them more reliant on Amazon’s ecosystem and ultimately give the company more control over its vast third-party marketplace. This move blurs the line between providing a service and integrating a business’s core operations into the platform itself, which could have long-term consequences for the independence and profitability of the sellers Amazon claims it wants to help.
Featured image credit: ANIRUDH via Unsplash
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