Amazon has announced the launch of Lens Live, a new feature in its shopping app designed to help customers quickly find and compare products. The tool uses artificial intelligence to scan items through a smartphone camera and display real-time matches in a swipeable carousel. According to Amazon, “Lens Live instantly scans products and shows real-time matches in a swipeable carousel to make finding the right item easier.”
The company has integrated its AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, into Lens Live. This addition allows users to access product insights, summaries, and answers to questions while browsing. As stated by Amazon, “Lens Live integrates Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, to offer product insights, summaries, and answer questions as you browse.”
Currently available for tens of millions of customers using the Amazon Shopping app on iOS devices, Lens Live will be rolled out more broadly in the coming weeks. Customers can use the feature by opening Amazon Lens within the app; the camera then scans products and displays top matches at the bottom of the screen for quick comparison. Users can tap on an item to focus on it specifically, add it directly to their cart with a plus icon, or save it to wish lists without leaving the camera view.
Rufus provides suggested questions and quick summaries under the product carousel during this process. These prompts are intended to give users faster access to information about each product.
For those who prefer traditional methods, options such as taking a picture or scanning a barcode remain available within Amazon Lens.
The technology behind Lens Live relies on AWS-managed OpenSearch and SageMaker services for deploying machine learning models at scale. It uses computer vision object detection models running directly on devices for real-time identification of products as customers move their cameras across scenes. A deep learning visual embedding model compares what is seen through the lens against billions of items listed on Amazon’s platform. The system also employs Rufus’s large language model (LLM) capabilities for generating relevant questions and facilitating product discovery.
More information about AWS’s machine learning services can be found at https://aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/.
