Amazon Extends AI-Powered Product Listings to Europe

Amazon is expanding its generative AI capabilities for product listings to sellers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. These new tools are designed to enhance product descriptions, titles, and associated details, making it easier for sellers to create comprehensive listings.

Expanding AI Tools

In addition to generating new listings, the AI tools can "enrich" existing product listings by automatically filling in missing information. This European launch comes nine months after Amazon initially announced plans to integrate generative AI technology for sellers, which had primarily been available in the U.S. until now. Quietly, Amazon had already launched these tools in the U.K. earlier this month.

According to Amazon, more than 30,000 sellers are currently using these AI-enabled listing tools. Sellers can access these features through the "List Your Products" page, where they can input relevant keywords or upload a product image. The AI then generates a product title, bullet points, and a description, which sellers can edit before finalizing the listing.

Ensuring Accuracy

While the AI tools promise to streamline the listing process, Amazon advises sellers to thoroughly review the generated content to ensure accuracy. Large language models (LLMs) are known to sometimes produce inaccurate or "hallucinated" information, so a manual check is recommended.

“Our generative AI tools are constantly learning and evolving,” Amazon stated on its U.K. forum. “We’re actively developing powerful new capabilities to make generated listings more effective and make it even easier for you to list products.”

Future Developments

Earlier this year, Amazon introduced a tool allowing sellers to generate product listings by posting a URL to their existing website. It remains unclear if or when this functionality will extend to European markets or other regions outside the U.S.

Regulatory Challenges

Amazon's expansion of AI tools into European markets comes with potential regulatory hurdles. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) present significant considerations, especially given Amazon’s designation as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the DSA, which demands transparency in AI applications.

Amazon has previously faced regulatory scrutiny in the EU over its handling of merchant data, including accusations of using non-public data from third-party sellers to benefit its retail business. These issues culminated in a £1.1 billion lawsuit by U.K. retailers this month.

While Amazon’s generative AI tools are distinct from these past issues, the training of LLMs still raises questions about the data sources used. Robert Tekiela, VP of Amazon Selection and Catalog Systems, noted in the initial announcement that the AI models learn from "diverse sources of information."

“With our new generative AI models, we can infer, improve, and enrich product knowledge at an unprecedented scale and with dramatic improvement in quality, performance, and efficiency,” Tekiela said. “For example, they can infer a table is round if specifications list a diameter or infer the collar style of a shirt from its image.”

Amazon’s generative AI tools aim to revolutionize the way product listings are created and managed, offering sellers an efficient solution to enhance their online presence.