What you need to know
- Amazon announced a few “visual search” upgrades headed to its app, and the main event involves AI-generated images based on what the user types.
- This feature will rely on your provided color, texture, and pattern descriptions, but every word added changes what the AI “creates.”
- Amazon has rolled out AI features before, such as “help me decide,” which leverages its AI to find real “Top Pick” or budget-friendly products.
Update
(Update: 6/5 3:20 pm ET): Amazon is clearing the air about tis AI-generated images while shoppers search for products in the app.
A representative from Amazon’s Shopping PR team reached out to Android Central to offer deeper insights about this feature. According to the representative, the AI images shoppers see are simply “visual representations of the keywords customers are typing.” This is meant to help guide them whilst they search before tapping to find true products in the realm of what they’re looking for.
Amazon says that if you’re looking for, say, a rug, the app might give very basic results. However, using your “visual cues,” you can narrow things down. Shoppers can add specific colors like “blue and cream” and say that the rug was “round.” The AI-generated image is like an extension of what you’re thinking in this scenario before diving into the product results.
What’s more, the Amazon Shopping PR team says there are labels in place to inform users about these images. Shoppers will find “AI image” beneath the search bar, so they know that what they’re currently seeing is based on their descriptions, not an actual product. Moreover, the app will tell users that they can “Find products that look like these AI images” before tapping an image that best fits what they’re looking for.
Amazon is rolling out a few search updates in its shopping app, and the main highlight is questionable.
This week, Amazon announced a series of “visual search” features headed to its app, and what’s got us furrowing our brows is its use of AI. Amazon states that it will use AI-generated images to help users find items they’re unfamiliar with. Its official statement reads, “Now, as customers search for products using descriptive language—like color, texture, or pattern—AI-generated images instantly take shape in the suggestions below the search bar.”
What’s more, it says that, as users type their description, the images will “shift and refine” with each added word. This is where the visual aspect of these updates comes into play, as users might’ve seen an item before but never had a chance to find its true name. Your descriptions will matter, but it affects the AI’s interpretation of what you’re talking about, not necessarily the product itself.
Android Central’s Take
There are certain areas where AI is useful, and areas where it’s not or doesn’t make sense. Personally, this feature belongs in the latter. Where I think AI is useful if with Amazon’s “shop by style.” It lumps in products that it thinks you’re talking about and would purchase. Where Amazon is taking its AI this time is a little different, and could cause some confusion with users. I get where that comes from. But it seems that Amazon intends for these AI images to act as a guide, rather than something users take as fact. The true products come in after you tap to find something similar.
Another AI-generated feature that Amazon’s rolling out is “Shop by style.” This is intended to be AI-curated collages of products after you’ve searched for something broad like “women’s silk shirt,” as Amazon states. Its AI will take that and compile different styles of silk shirts into categories. Shoppers can find shirts that fit more of a business theme or a party theme and more.
Amazon Lens Live comes into play, allowing shoppers to use their cameras to ask about products and find them in the app. It’s awfully similar to how Gemini Live works today. Elsewhere, the company is rolling out “circle to search.” Similar to Google’s version, users curious about a product in an image can highlight (or circle) it for Amazon Lens’ AI to find it for them.
Amazon’s AI has been helpful before
Android Central’s Take
Authenticity is the issue with Amazon’s AI-generated product images. If the AI was thinking as you were typing, like its Visual Suggestions it’s also rolling out, then fine. That would work since the AI is comprehending before showing you what’s real. But to have an AI “create” photos of products that don’t exist (since it’s using your description), doesn’t make sense.
Amazon has rolled out AI-fueled features in the past for its shopping experience, but never quite like what’s highlighted today. Late last year, the company introduced “Help me decide.” This feature was designed to leverage a user’s search history and product preferences to produce “Top Pick,” “Budget Pick,” and “Upgrade Pick.” These categories are pretty straightforward. Some are at the top of the industry (likely pricey), while others are more affordable or something to step up what you already have.
The main difference here is that Amazon’s new AI-generated path is trying to create an “image” of what you’re searching for to guide you toward listed products.
