With the help of an AI application, Amazon wants to make purchasing decisions easier for its customers in the future. But the new app feature may not be as useful as the company claims.
It’s very easy to get lost in the vast, endless expanse of Amazon shopping offers. If you want to outfit yourself with a new power bank or a gaming mouse, you’re spoiled for choice between dozens, if not hundreds, of models and brands. The experiences of other buyers can be a real help in making a decision. Amazon now wants to extend this concept to customer reviews with an AI app. And again the question arises: Does the use of artificial intelligence make things much better or much worse?
Amazon’s problem with fake reviews
Amazon itself seems rather glorified in its customer reviews system. When the company introduced the review function in 1995, the concept of buying a product based on the opinions and experiences of previous buyers was still relatively new. It’s hard to imagine today, after all, that you can now rate just about anything and on all sorts of platforms. Amazon customers also make good use of it. In 2022 alone, they have provided 1.5 billion reviews and ratings worldwide.
At the same time, Amazon will have to admit that the star of online ratings has fallen since ChatGPT and Co. at the latest. Because the star rating has long become a profitable business, which is constantly collapsing customers’ trust in reviews. Amazon has long struggled with manipulated or fake product reviews. In 2020 alone, the group blocked 200 million fake comments.
While some scam sellers buy swaths of positive reviews, some members of the Vine Club product test group regularly post reviews without actually testing the products. Reviews written by AIs like ChatGPT have also been on the rise since 2022. These aren’t helpful to Amazon customers either, but they at least make you smile. CNBC Some amusing examples collected reviews, all in a similar vein: “As an AI model, I may not have a body, but I know the importance of comfortable clothes during pregnancy.”
Also interesting: What does “verified purchase” actually mean on Amazon?
Artificial intelligence analyzes customer opinions
Although ChatGPT and Co. It may cause some problems for Amazon, but the group now relies on the same artificial intelligence to better support customers in their purchasing decisions, As stated in a statement. To do this, the AI must analyze product reviews and then provide a short summary right next to the product details. This snippet of opinions is intended to provide customers with a quick overview, but its content is more helpful than the five stars.
In addition, the AI works on keywords that are frequently mentioned in reviews, such as “usability”. These keywords should then act as a button and lead to reviews dealing with that specific aspect. The idea here too is that hesitant customers can quickly find the review that will help them the most according to AI. So far, this AI extension is only available in the Amazon app in the US and it’s still in the testing phase there as well. This means that only a few users have access to the function so far.
No artificial intelligence without criticism
Although Amazon says it only has the best in mind for its customers, some points of criticism catch the eye right away. First and foremost, as with all algorithms of this type, an AI is only as good as the data it uses — namely customer reviews. And as has been shown, a large portion of the reviews are manipulated, falsified, or even invented by artificial intelligence.
Amazon claims it is taking action against this, but in the end these actions remain a black box for customers. If you read individual reviews yourself, you can at least identify the clearly unoriginal ones. However, with an AI-generated summary, this self-assessment is omitted.
A new feature that could harm sellers
In addition, there are concerns that AI could be affected by Amazon hence, for example, focusing mainly on the positive aspects of reviews in the analysis. Finally, as a marketplace, Amazon benefits from purchases. But there is also another way The first cases, where in its summary AI highlights “majority opinions” that do not match the average star rating. If the AI highlights negative reviews, even though most of the reviews are positive, it can cause serious damage to the seller. On the other hand, if products are shown falsely too positively, AI completely defeats the purpose of customer reviews. As long as such inconsistencies exist, customers and sellers are more at risk of defects from the AI application. Instead of relying on it, customers now have to spend extra time checking the AI summary.
This also applies to keywords that Amazon’s AI extracts from customer reviews. Because many of the original reviews come from ordinary people who – in the spirit of it – share their personal experiences. But while a gaming mouse reviewer might place a high value on aesthetics and lighting effects, a potential buyer might be more interested in size or ergonomic design—which may or may not fit in the hand size. Here too, the promise that AI will filter out the aspects that matter most is difficult to deliver, because many products have very different customer needs. It remains to be seen if the AI will really help Amazon customers now that it’s fine-tuned in the testing phase.
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