Amazon is rolling out a new AI shopping agent with a feature called “Buy for Me” that handles everything for shopers. Imagine telling an app...
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| Amazon is rolling out a new AI shopping agent with a feature called “Buy for Me” that handles everything for shopers. |
Behind the scenes, the AI agent uses encryption to securely insert your billing information. It can visit any website, select the product you requested, fill in your name, shipping address, and payment details, and finalize the purchase — all without you lifting a finger. Currently, many American online shoppers are flooding the agent with requests, testing its speed and reliability. If this feature rolls out globally, it could completely redefine what it means to "shop online" — making impulse buys and last-minute gifts just a voice command or a few taps away.
What truly sets "Buy for Me" apart from competitors like OpenAI and Google is how it handles payments. Instead of requiring you to manually enter your credit card information on each third-party site, Amazon’s AI securely inserts your billing information through advanced encryption. That means faster, safer, and more convenient shopping, without the tedious checkout steps we’re all used to.
Behind the scenes, Amazon’s AI shopping agent will visit an external website, select a product that a user requested, and fill out the user’s name, shipping address, and payment details in order to purchase it, according to Amazon. Amazon is starting to test a new AI shopping agent, a feature it calls “Buy for Me,” with a subset of users, the company announced in a blog post Thursday. If Amazon doesn’t sell something that users are searching for, the Buy for Me feature will display products that other websites are selling. Then users can select and request to purchase one of these products without ever leaving the Amazon Shopping app.
Amazon is the latest company to unveil an AI shopping agent, joining firms such as OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity, which have all showcased similar agents that can visit websites and help users make purchases. Amazon is already most people’s go-to platform for anything they’d want to purchase on the internet, but Buy for Me could allow Amazon to capture even more e-commerce business than it does today.
Amazon said in the aforementioned that the shopping AI agent uses encryption to “securely” insert your billing information on third-party sites, such that Amazon can’t see what you’re ordering from outside its platform. This is a unique approach compared to OpenAI’s and Google’s agents, which require humans to fill out credit card information themselves, as well as Perplexity’s AI agent, which has a prepaid debit card to make purchases.
Amazon is basically asking users to trust that its agent won’t accidentally purchase 1,000 pairs of socks instead of 10, for example. It’s also asking that they accept less control over the shopping experience. If a customer needs to return or exchange an order, Buy for Me will direct them to the digital storefront from which the AI agent made the purchase.
Of course, with any new AI-driven service, some concerns linger. Could the AI accidentally buy the wrong item? Amazon seems to have thought ahead: while the AI takes care of the entire transaction, it redirects users to the original store if they ever need to make a return or handle an exchange. That way, the purchase is still backed by the store's original policies, giving shoppers peace of mind.
As Amazon continues to expand the power and reach of AI, "Buy for Me" could mark the beginning of a completely new era of hands-free online shopping. If this feature rolls out globally, it could completely redefine what it means to "shop online" — making impulse buys and last-minute gifts just a voice command or a few taps away. I have a question here: Would you trust an AI agent to shop for you? Let’s hear your thoughts below!