Jeff Bezos has urged Prime Video boss Mike Hopkins to revamp the streaming service to make artificial intelligence (AI) a starring role, Reuters reported Thursday (July 23), citing four sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
That led to an in-house project called Lighthouse, which would give the more than 200 million people who use Prime Video a better glimpse at Amazon’s AI capabilities, which the company has spent hundreds of billions of dollars developing.
PYMNTS has contacted Amazon for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.
Reuters sources said Lighthouse is seen as a key part of Amazon’s efforts to boost its standing in the AI space amid competition from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic. Other projects, like the long-running upgrade of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to offer more conversational responses, have produced mixed results, with that division still losing money, sources have told Reuters.
According to Reuters’ sources, the Prime Video project came after a presentation the streaming service’s executives made to Bezos last fall turned “contentious,” with Bezos unhappy that plans for an updated Prime Video did not effectively spotlight the service’s AI/personalization capabilities. This led the company to jettison its original plans and launch Lighthouse.
In other Amazon news, PYMNTS wrote last week about new PYMNTS Intelligence research showing that while Walmart continues to dominate when it comes to routine shopping trips — especially for groceries — Amazon is gaining in purchases consumers research, plan and have delivered.
“The findings point to a broader change in consumer behavior: Shoppers are more often choosing the retailer that best fits each purchase rather than just making purchases where it is most convenient,” the report said.
“That creates fresh opportunities for merchants that can connect physical stores, digital experiences and flexible payment options into one seamless journey.”
The research also found an “inversion of traditional retail logic,” PYMNTS wrote. Retailers have long seen the weekly shopping trip as the foundation for bigger purchases, though new data indicates that relationship has softened. Customers still turn to Walmart for day-to-day essentials, but are increasingly relying on Amazon for more deliberate, higher-value purchases.
“In other words, frequent store traffic no longer guarantees a larger share of discretionary spending,” the report added. “As shoppers become more comfortable moving between physical stores and digital channels, retailers have an opportunity to rethink how they connect in-store visits with online engagement, personalized offers and payment experiences that encourage customers to complete more of their shopping in one ecosystem.”
