Help Me Decide or Help Me Buy? Amazon’s AI Gets More Personal Than Ever

Amazon just introduced a new AI feature called, Help me Decide. It is made to help recommend the best product after scanning your browsing history and shopping habits. It’s meant to make decision-making easier, but it also means users will have to give even more data to Amazon’s recommendation systems.

The feature appears after a user browses multiple similar items, trying to give one confident pick, that is, overall, what the feature thinks is best. It uses large language models, your browsing history, and AWS tools like Bedrock, OpenSearch, and SageMaker. One of Amazon’s examples for Help Me Decide was how it would recommend a family-size tent based on past camping-related searches. The thing is, is it helping or telling you what to buy indirectly? The same data that makes shopping easier also makes Amazon’s customer profile of users even deeper.

Help Me Decide also comes alongside other Amazon AI projects like Rufus, Interests, Shopping Guides, and Live Lens. All of them make product discovery faster, but they also narrow your choices to what Amazon’s AI thinks is best for you, not necessarily what is best overall. It is a part of the companies’ push to integrate AI into everyday browsing, much like other tech companies.

Help Me Decide looks like a time-saver, but it could also make users less aware of how much Amazon has control over their buying choices. There are also privacy concerns with this new feature, especially as AI recommendations rely more on behavioral tracking. It is one thing to get help when you are shopping, but it is also a whole different thing when you let the world’s biggest retailer help you decide.

Do you think the feature will suggest more expensive products than it needs to? Are you going to use this feature? Let us know in the comments!

Source and Images: Amazon