Okay, Amazon’s new AI shopping feature is actually pretty helpful

Amazon is well aware that you’re spending hours agonizing over the reviews for seven different near-identical toaster ovens before you actually make a decision. Now, it has an AI feature for that—and we have to admit, it’s pretty helpful.

“Help me decide” is a new AI shopping function that rolled out on October 23 across millions of U.S. customers on the Amazon shopping app and mobile browser. It uses large language models and AI tools from Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) suite of offerings to analyze your shopping history, purchase details, and preferences, and then match those insights with product details and customer reviews to recommend products that you might be most interested in. 

Designed to cut down on shopper indecision and usher users straight to the checkout cart, the feature is a smart move for Amazon, and it might make holiday shopping a bit less tortuous for customers. As the world’s most popular online retail site continues to roll out new AI features, it’s serving as a proving ground for how AI is radically reshaping online shopping as we know it.

How to use Amazon’s new “Help me decide” feature

To try out “Help me decide,” you can either navigate to the “Keep shopping for” tab on the Amazon homepage, or just click on a bunch of related products until you see a black pop-up with a sparkle icon.

From there, the tool will select the product that it deems “best of your recently viewed” based on customer reviews, your personal product criteria, and prices and return rates. Its selection includes an AI-generated summary of why you should commit to its choice, highlighting the most relevant product features and including one stand-out review of the item. At the bottom of the screen, you can also toggle to two other suggestions: one “budget pick,” on the lower end of the price spectrum, and one “upgrade pick,” if you’re inclined to get spendy.

“Help Me Decide saves you time by using AI to provide product recommendations tailored to your needs after you’ve been browsing several similar items, giving you confidence in your purchase decision,” Daniel Lloyd, vice president of Personalization at Amazon, said in a press release. 

I gave the tool a try after spending the past several days window shopping for cat trees that are definitely outside my budget. True to its description, “Help me decide” picked a tree in the middle of the price range (still $99.98), describing it as “the ultimate choice for your furry friend’s indoor adventure.” The summary went on to describe the tree’s “impressive 70-inch height,” “spacious hammock,” and removable top perch that “ensures easy cleaning.” 

Despite the flowery language used in the AI summaries, I found the tool generally helpful and easy to use.

How AI is changing online shopping

The “Help me decide” add-on is the latest in a growing bevy of AI shopping features from Amazon. These include the company’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus; an Interests feature that tracks personalized shopping categories; and AI-generated review highlights that give top notes on customer reactions to products. 

Over the past several months, brands including Ralph Lauren and Pinterest have invested in their own AI tools to drive online shopping. Walmart and Sam’s Club have partnered with OpenAI to allow customers to shop from within the chatbot. And the AI-powered app Daydream is purpose-built to help users find the perfect outfits. 

In a recent Adobe Analytics study on holiday shopping behaviors, the company shared that 2024 was the first time it noticed a measurable surge in AI traffic to U.S. retail sites before the holidays. Now, it’s expecting a major escalation of that trend, estimating that holiday AI traffic to retail sites will rise by 520% in 2025. 

AI is quietly rewiring the way we shop—both in subtle ways, like by improving product recommendations, and in more direct ways, like via AI chatbots that can literally shop on behalf of a user. It won’t be long until every part of the online shopping experience is guided, at least in some way, by a dedicated AI model.

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