Not only selling goods, Amazon has started selling "AI shopping guides".

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Amazon is pushing its internally developed AI shopping technology into broader commercial markets—shifting from "selling its own goods" to "selling AI-guided shopping capabilities," aiming to become a provider of AI shopping infrastructure.

According to reports, Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will open its AI shopping technology for licensing to third-party retailers via AWS, allowing merchants to build their own AI shopping assistants in as little as 60 days. This move continues Amazon's strategic logic from twenty years ago when it pioneered the cloud computing market with AWS: commercializing internal technology.

Currently, luxury fashion brand Kate Spade is the first to connect and has launched a gift recommendation assistant. Meanwhile, tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity are also laying out AI shopping tools, but some products are hindered by technical or merchant onboarding issues. Amazon is aiming to take its place in this new track as a "technology provider."

Pushing Internal Technology to the Market, AWS Again as Commercial Carrier

Amazon revealed in a blog post that the externally licensed technology covers the architecture, foundational code, and operating experience of its shopping AI tool "Alexa for Shopping." Merchants can build AI shopping assistants tailored to their brand, product catalog, and storefront style in as little as 60 days.

This service is provided through AWS. The industry generally regards this as Amazon's structural arrangement to ease retailers' longstanding concerns—they have always worried that sharing data with the e-commerce giant would bring commercial risks.

This approach is highly consistent with Amazon’s traditional expansion logic. About twenty years ago, it spun off internal IT infrastructure capability as AWS, pioneering the cloud computing service market; later it exported cashierless technology, warehousing, and supply chain services. Now, the commercialization of AI shopping technology is the latest extension of this strategic logic.

Rejecting "Intermediaries," Promoting Vertical, In-House Solutions

In the blog post published Wednesday, Amazon clearly advises retailers to build their own AI tools rather than hand over control of the shopping experience to "intermediaries." Amazon stated: "Retailers possess deep vertical knowledge of their own products, customers, and categories—something no generic AI can rival."

This statement aligns with the company's overall prudent AI strategy. Reports indicate Amazon is cautious about integrating competing AI platforms, focusing on building internal tools, and imposing limits on external AI agents scraping its site data.

Earlier this month, Amazon renamed its e-commerce chatbot from "Rufus" to "Alexa for Shopping," and integrated it by default into the platform's search feature. The technology licensed externally is based on the same system.

Competition Heats Up in the AI Shopping Track, Merchant Onboarding Still Challenging

Amazon’s entry into the B2B market comes as competition in the AI shopping track reaches a fever pitch. OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity have launched consumer-facing shopping research tools and agents, but according to reports, some products are stalled by technical flaws or complicated merchant onboarding processes. Meanwhile, it remains unknown whether consumers are willing to entrust full purchase decisions to AI agents.

On the retailer side, platforms such as Walmart, Target, Etsy, Gap, and eBay are employing multi-pronged strategies—developing their own AI tools while forging partnerships with OpenAI and Google. Software companies like Salesforce have also offered chatbot or AI agent deployment solutions for retailers.

With this move, Amazon leverages AWS’s mature business ecosystem and customer network to directly compete with the aforementioned software providers, while also offering retailers dependent on third-party AI platforms an alternative route. Aside from Kate Spade, Amazon says more retailers are "currently testing" but has not disclosed specific names.

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