Amazon has begun licensing the artificial intelligence technology behind its Alexa for Shopping assistant to other retailers through its cloud division, seeking to expand its influence in online commerce as technology groups race to develop AI-driven shopping tools.
The company said on Wednesday that Amazon Web Services would offer retailers the “architecture, starter code and learnings” behind Alexa for Shopping through a new service called AWS Agentic Shopping Assistant. According to Amazon, retailers can tailor the software to their own catalogues and branding and deploy conversational shopping assistants within roughly 60 days.
The move extends Amazon’s long-running strategy of commercialising internal technology platforms for external customers. The group previously followed a similar model with AWS cloud computing services and later with logistics and cashierless checkout systems. CNBC reported that Amazon recently rebranded its Rufus ecommerce chatbot as Alexa for Shopping and enabled the service by default in search queries on its marketplace.
Amazon said more than 300 million customers used its shopping assistant last year, generating nearly $12 billion in incremental sales. The company argued retailers should build their own AI shopping experiences rather than rely on external AI intermediaries. “Retailers already possess deep vertical knowledge about their products, customers, and categories that no general-purpose AI can match,” the company said in a blog post.
Tapestry-owned Kate Spade is the first announced customer for the service, using the technology to launch an AI-powered gifting assistant. Amazon said additional retailers are testing the platform. Yang Lu, chief information and digital officer at Tapestry, said: “We are excited about the possibilities agentic commerce can bring to our customers. AWS brought the recipe, but together we built the customization our consumers needed.”
The launch comes as technology and retail companies compete to shape how consumers shop using generative AI tools. OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have introduced shopping agents and research tools, while retailers including Walmart, Target and eBay are developing their own AI shopping features and partnerships.
Amazon has largely avoided integrating rival AI shopping services into its marketplace and has restricted external AI agents from scraping its site. The company has instead focused on proprietary systems, including a “Buy for Me” feature that can purchase products from third-party retailers on behalf of users.
