Amazon lets users shop by scanning real-world items

Amazon has introduced Lens Live, a feature that allows users to shop by scanning real-world objects with their phone camera.

The tool is currently available on the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and uses AI to identify items in view, then matches them to products on Amazon’s marketplace.

Lens Live displays similar products in a swipeable carousel, with options to add items to the cart or wishlist.

The feature also incorporates Amazon’s AI assistant Rufus, which can summarize product descriptions and answer questions about listings.

Lens Live expands on Amazon’s existing visual search capabilities, which include searching by image upload or barcode scanning.

The company said it will roll out the feature to more users in the coming weeks.

🔗 Source: The Verge

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Amazon’s visual shopping tool reflects two decades of AI-first strategy

Lens Live represents the latest evolution of Amazon’s systematic AI transformation that began in 2014 when engineer Srikanth Thirumalai proposed incorporating advanced machine learning into the company’s recommendation systems1.

Amazon’s current recommendation engine, powered by AI, now generates approximately 35% of the company’s total revenue by analyzing individual customer preferences and browsing history2.

The company has deliberately structured itself around what it calls a “flywheel” strategy, where innovations in one area of AI fuel advancements in others, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of growth1.

This approach explains why Lens Live integrates multiple existing Amazon AI capabilities, combining object detection, product matching across billions of listings, and the Rufus AI assistant for product summaries.

Amazon’s commitment to this strategy is evident in their infrastructure investments, including deploying approximately 200,000 robots in fulfillment centers and launching AWS RoboMaker to support AI development across industries2.

2️⃣ Visual shopping AI becomes new competitive battleground

Amazon’s Lens Live launch follows Google’s major Shopping platform rebuild with AI in October 2024, which integrated 45 billion product listings with AI-generated briefs and virtual try-on features3.