Amazon Launches Generative AI Tools to Assist Sellers in Crafting Engaging Product Descriptions

Amazon has launched a new suite of generative AI tools designed to streamline the product listing process for sellers. According to the retail giant, these innovative features aim to help sellers craft “captivating product descriptions, titles, and listing details” with ease. Sellers can enhance existing product descriptions using AI, eliminating the need to start from square one.

The AI tools leverage advanced large language models (LLMs) that have been trained on substantial datasets. While Amazon does not disclose the specifics, it appears likely that the company utilized its own listing data to refine its machine learning models. Previously, Amazon relied on machine learning and deep learning techniques to extract and enrich product information. This new generation of AI capabilities builds significantly upon those existing technologies.

“With our cutting-edge generative AI models, we can infer, enhance, and enrich product insights at an unmatched scale, achieving significant improvements in quality, performance, and efficiency,” stated Robert Tekiela, Amazon's Vice President of Selection and Catalog Systems. “Our models learn to infer product characteristics based on diverse information sources, latent knowledge, and logical reasoning. For instance, they can deduce that a table is round by its diameter specification or identify a shirt's collar style from its image.”

Amazon asserts that these generative AI tools will not only save sellers valuable time but also provide customers with more comprehensive product information. However, there are concerns regarding the risks associated with deploying generative AI at such a large scale. These models may “hallucinate,” creating false information not grounded in reality. Additionally, the tools could introduce errors that might go unnoticed without human oversight. If incorrect product listings or descriptions are generated, Amazon could face liability, especially if it does not disclose that AI was used to create the listing.

Previously, The Information reported that Amazon was piloting generative AI tools for content creation, emphasizing that the tool advises sellers to verify the generated content for compliance with Amazon’s listing guidelines. The company has not addressed questions regarding the specific LLMs used in these new tools.

Amazon is not alone in exploring generative AI for simplifying product listing creation. eBay recently announced a similar tool that generates product listings directly from photos. Earlier this summer, Shopify unveiled its own ChatGPT-like assistant for e-commerce merchants, designed to understand and respond to inquiries related to business decisions, while also creating content such as blog posts, campaign ideas, and customer emails, among other applications.

Whether through AI-generated content or enhanced listing processes, retailers are increasingly adopting generative AI to transform the e-commerce landscape.