Amazon Connects Independent Sellers to Customized GenAI Assistant

Amazon is going all in on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for its independent seller community.

Announced Thursday (Sept. 19) at its Amazon Accelerate event in Seattle, a new GenAI initiative is aimed at easing the complexities independent sellers face using its platform and continues its current theme of connecting independent sellers to retail and logistics technology.

Dubbed Project Amelia, it is a personal assistant designed to help sellers streamline business operations and scale their businesses more efficiently.

“As a technologist I always believed that a pragmatic approach is necessary,” Mary Beth Westmoreland, VP worldwide selling partner experience, told PYMNTS. “It can’t be technology for technology’s sake. Practical applications are the outcome technology should achieve.”

With millions of third-party sellers using the platform, Amazon’s marketplace accounts for more than 60% of the company’s eCommerce sales, and the Accelerate event was filled with announcements and upgrades to the services Amazon extends to its sellers to navigate and succeed.

“Running a global selling business on Amazon involves managing a wide range of tasks, from product development and marketing to regulatory compliance and inventory management,” Westmoreland said. “Amazon provides various tools and services to assist with these responsibilities, but Project Amelia is designed to simplify the process even further.”

A demo of Project Amelia showcased the ability of a seller to submit a general query that would then be turned into an intelligence report with advice on expansion, new inventory or logistics information.

For example, if an apparel seller asks, “What product lines should I expand into?” Amelia gives back an answer customized to the company’s current inventory as well as market trends. If the seller asks for a status report on sales, it gets a complete report on current revenue, year-to-date updates, and performance vs. projections.

The AI will be accessible from any page within Amazon’s Seller Central platform, where merchants manage their Amazon businesses.

Project Amelia is built on Amazon Bedrock, the company’s foundation for scalable GenAI applications. This infrastructure provides access to the latest foundation models, which are tailored for specific business use cases. In Amelia’s case, it combines vast amounts of general world knowledge with Amazon-specific expertise.

According to Amazon, this allows Amelia to offer more than just standard AI assistance; the assistant is deeply informed about the unique challenges and opportunities of selling on Amazon. Amelia’s responses are crafted to help sellers navigate the platform’s intricacies and, over time, the AI will provide more personalized guidance.

“The long-term goal is for Amelia not only to offer advice but to anticipate sellers’ needs and resolve issues proactively,” Westmoreland said.

The functionality of Project Amelia revolves around three primary areas: knowledge-based questions, business metrics updates and issue resolution.

Knowledge-based questions: Sellers can ask Amelia for advice on a variety of topics, from seasonal preparation strategies to product compliance. For example, when asked, “What are the top things I need to do to prepare for the holiday season?” Amelia will provide best practices and personalized recommendations.

Status updates and metrics: Amelia can quickly retrieve key performance indicators such as sales data, customer traffic and product-specific metrics. Sellers can inquire, “How is my business doing?” to receive an overview of recent performance and drill down further by asking more specific questions, such as the performance of individual products.

Actions and issue resolution: In the future, Amelia will not only diagnose problems but also offer solutions or take action on behalf of sellers. For example, if a seller notices a discrepancy in their inventory data, Amelia will help investigate and potentially resolve the issue automatically.

Project Amelia’s current beta version is accessible to a select group of U.S. sellers, with plans to expand the program to additional U.S. sellers in the coming weeks. By the end of the year, Amazon aims to roll out Amelia to more countries and introduce support for languages beyond English.

As the AI evolves, Amazon envisions Amelia taking on a more proactive role in managing sellers’ operations. Amelia will reduce the time and effort required by sellers to manage their business, which they can reinvest in their growth, Westmoreland said.

“This is only the beginning for Project Amelia,” Westmoreland said. “As sellers begin interacting with it, the technology will learn and evolve, leading to more comprehensive and personalized responses, with deeper insights and advice specific to sellers’ business needs. We are also continuously enhancing and refining Project Amelia with additional knowledge and capabilities, fulfilling a vision to make it an amazing selling assistant and trusted adviser that empowers sellers to thrive and drive even greater success in Amazon’s store.”