In what may be one of the most questionable uses of AI ever, Amazon announced Wednesday that it will now display AI-generated images of products within its shopping app based on users’ search queries. That’s right. Retailers where people buy real products believe that by displaying fake photos, it will be easier for consumers to find the products they are looking for.
That’s enough.
Here’s what Amazon says in a blog post that this feature works: Your customer may have something in mind, but they don’t know the right terminology to describe it in a way that returns useful results. (Examples Amazon cites include “cowl neck” shirt styles and “wicker” furniture.)
When a user types a search query, a variety of AI-generated product images appear below autocomplete suggestions (see image above).
For example, if you search for a blue gingham dress, you may see several dress styles as visual options, such as short or long sleeves, various lengths, and other differences. The idea is that by leveraging Amazon’s visual search feature, you can click on one and be directed to search results that better match your style.
In reality, it’s a bit of nonsense for retailers to fabricate fake products as a way to drive users to search results.
First, this can be misleading. Customers who don’t read carefully may think they’re being directed to a page where they can find the dress and may be disappointed when they can’t find it. And then there’s the pretty obvious question: why would you make up product images when you have a website full of real photos of real products? Maybe that’s what online shoppers actually want to see.
The feature follows a number of other attempts by Amazon to integrate AI into its retail sites and shopping apps, with mixed results. What’s even better is that Amazon already summarizes customer reviews through AI, so you don’t have to read them all to understand a product’s main pros and cons. Even more bizarrely, last year the company introduced a short audio product overview feature where AI experts explain product highlights in podcast format.
Other recent AI features include AI-generated “shoppable collages” that direct people to curated pages dedicated to specific fashion styles. Amazon Lens Live scans products within the camera’s field of view to find visual matches. Ability to add text to visual search. Lock screen visual search widget for iOS.
Earlier this month, Amazon also replaced its Rufus AI chatbot with Alexa for Shopping, enabling natural language shopping queries via voice and text.
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