Amazon has integrated an AI image generator into its Amazon Shopping app (Retail Dive - Technology). The tool creates images of products based on customers' descriptions, generating variations based on criteria such as pattern, color, and texture, and refining them with each new word the user adds. Customers can then select the image that best fits what they're looking for and shop similar products. For now, shoppers can use it to search for apparel and home goods, but the company plans to expand the service across more product categories in the future (Retail Dive - Technology).
This AI image generator is the latest in a series of visual search enhancements Amazon has deployed. In 2024, the company enabled customers to add text to their Amazon Lens searches to specify criteria like color, brand, and material, and introduced its Visual Suggestions tool to help shoppers narrow down broad queries (Retail Dive - Technology). Last year, Amazon unveiled its Lens Live feature, which uses AI to scan products and identify matching items. Alongside the new AI image generator, Amazon also debuted a "Shop by Style" tool that creates AI-generated shoppable collages sorted into style categories (Retail Dive - Technology).
For commerce practitioners, these tools signal Amazon's broader strategy to reduce search friction through generative AI. By enabling customers to describe products visually rather than rely on text keywords, Amazon is addressing a core e-commerce challenge: bridging the gap between what shoppers envision and what search algorithms return. This approach complements Amazon's recent rollout of Alexa for Shopping and AI-generated product hosts, indicating a multi-modal AI search strategy designed to improve discovery and conversion across the shopping journey (Retail Dive - Technology).