Amazon's new AI-powered shopping tool

Author

Connor Jaksik
February 02, 2024

Happy Friday!

This has been another exciting week in the world of AI with major product updates and releases from the largest players in the game. The past week demonstrates how we’re progressively seeing gen-AI work its way into some of the world’s most used online products and services.

  • Amazon launches Rufus, an AI-powered shopping tool

  • Bard now generates photos!

  • Shopify unveils an AI Photo Editing Tool

  • Microsoft releases a report exploring AI’s impact on jobs

Image source: Amazon

Overview: Amazon launched a new AI shopping assistant, Rufus, which can answer questions about products, compare products, and make recommendations.

Key Takeaways:

  • Amazon's new AI shopping assistant, Rufus, can answer questions about products, compare products, and make recommendations.

  • It can also be used to learn more about product categories and shop by occasion.

  • Rufus is currently in beta and is being rolled out to a limited number of customers.

  • Amazon has not yet said when Rufus will be available to all customers.

Image source: Google

Overview: Bard's latest update makes Google’s most powerful AI model, Gemini Pro, globally accessible and now supports image generation in English.

Key Takeaways:

  • Bard is now powered by Gemini Pro in over 40 languages which allows users to double-check Bard's responses.

  • You can now generate images in Bard in English in most countries around the world, at no cost. This new capability is powered by the Imagen 2 model, which is designed to balance quality and speed, delivering high-quality, photorealistic outputs.

  • This update is a significant step forward in making Bard a more powerful and versatile tool for users around the world.

Image source: Shopify

Overview: Shopify unveiled that it’s adding more generative AI tools including a media editor that suggests backgrounds and styles that match existing product images.

Key Takeaways:

  • Shopify's new AI image editor can change product photo backgrounds and suggest backgrounds based on the merchant's library.

  • Shopify says the editor is meant to help small businesses compete with larger brands.

  • Other AI tools offered by Shopify include automated product descriptions, chatbot integration, and suggested replies for chats.

  • The editor is still in beta, but it is expected to be more widely available in the coming months.

Image source: Microsoft

Overview: The report emphasizes the transformative potential of AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), in reshaping the future of work, highlighting the importance of human-AI collaboration, appropriate reliance on AI, and the potential for AI to address knowledge fragmentation within organizations.

Key Takeaways:

  • A study by LinkedIn suggests that augmented jobs are particularly likely to see a shift in the composition of tasks workers do and

    the skills they rely on most.

  • Research by Goldman Sachs suggests that organizations in Developed Markets may have more tasks exposed to AI than in Emerging Markets.

  • A study by OpenAI found that approximately 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by LLms, with around 19% of workers potentially seeing at least 50% of their tasks impacted.

  • Historical examples, such as the introduction of ATMs and chatbots, demonstrate that new technologies lead to the evolution of roles and tasks in various industries.

  • The report emphasizes the need to reframe predictive questions about AI's relationship to work into questions about values and strategic goals, highlighting the importance of joint action.