Latest news with #Techsponential
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
‘Buy it for me': Rise of AI shopping agents changing how we spend online
NEW YORK, May 30 — Internet giants are diving deeper into e-commerce with digital aides that know shoppers' likes, let them virtually try clothes on, hunt for deals and even place orders. The rise of virtual personal shoppers springs from generative artificial intelligence (AI) being put to work in 'agents' specializing in specific tasks and given autonomy to complete them independently. 'This is basically the next evolution of shopping experiences,' said CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino. Google last week unveiled shopping features built into a new 'AI Mode'. It can take a person's own photo and meld it with that of a skirt, shirt or other piece of clothing spotted online, showing how it will look on them. The AI adjusts the clothing size to fit, accounting for how fabrics drape, according to Google head of advertising and commerce Vidhya Srinivasan. Shoppers can then set the price they would pay and leave the AI to relentlessly browse the internet for a deal—alerting the shopper when it finds one, and asking if it should buy using Google's payment platform. 'They're taking on Amazon a little bit,' Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart said of Google. The tool is also a way to make money from AI by increasing online traffic and opportunities to show ads, Greengart added. The Silicon Valley tech titan did not respond to a query regarding whether it is sharing in revenue from shopping transactions. Bartering bots? OpenAI added a shopping feature to ChatGPT earlier this year, enabling the chatbot to respond to requests with product suggestions, consumer reviews and links to merchant websites. Perplexity AI late last year began letting subscribers pay for online purchases without leaving its app. Amazon in April added a 'Buy for Me' mode to its Rufus digital assistant, allowing users to command it to make purchases at retailer websites off Amazon's platform. Walmart head of technology Hari Vasudev recently spoke about adding an AI agent to the retail behemoth's online shopping portal, while also working with partners to make sure their digital agents keep Walmart products in mind. Global payment networks Visa and Mastercard in April each said their technical systems were modernized to allow payment transactions by digital agents. 'As AI agents start to take over the bulk of product discovery and the decision-making process, retailers must consider how to optimize for this new layer of AI shoppers,' said Elise Watson of Clarkston Consulting. Retailers are likely to be left groping in the dark when it comes to what makes a product attractive to AI agents, according to Watson. Knowing the customer Analyst Zino does not expect AI shoppers to cause an e-commerce industry upheaval, but he does see the technology benefitting Google and Meta. Not only do the Internet rivals have massive amounts of data about their users, but they are also among frontrunners in the AI race. 'They probably have more information on the consumer than anyone else out there,' Zino said of Google and Meta. Tech company access to data about users hits the hot-button issue of online privacy and who should control personal information. Google plans to refine consumer profiles based on what people search for and promises that shoppers will need to authorize access to additional information such as email or app use. Trusting a chatbot with one's buying decisions may spook some people, and while the technology might be in place the legal and ethical framework for it is not. 'The agent economy is here,' said PSE Consulting managing director Chris Jones. 'The next phase of e-commerce will depend on whether we can trust machines to buy on our behalf.' — AFP
Arab News
3 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
AI personal shoppers hunt down bargain buys
NEW YORK: Internet giants are diving deeper into e-commerce with digital aides that know shoppers' likes, let them virtually try clothes on, hunt for deals and even place orders. The rise of virtual personal shoppers springs from generative artificial intelligence being put to work in 'agents' specializing in specific tasks and given autonomy to complete them independently. 'This is basically the next evolution of shopping experiences,' said CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino. Google last week unveiled shopping features built into a new 'AI Mode.' It can take a person's own photo and meld it with that of a skirt, shirt or other piece of clothing spotted online, showing how it will look on them. The AI adjusts the clothing size to fit, accounting for how fabrics drape, according to Google head of advertising and commerce Vidhya Srinivasan. Shoppers can then set the price they would pay and leave the AI to relentlessly browse the Internet for a deal — alerting the shopper when it finds one, and asking if it should buy using Google's payment platform. 'They're taking on Amazon a little bit,' Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart said of Google. The tool is also a way to make money from AI by increasing online traffic and opportunities to show ads, Greengart added. The Silicon Valley tech titan did not respond to a query regarding whether it is sharing in revenue from shopping transactions. OpenAI added a shopping feature to ChatGPT earlier this year, enabling the chatbot to respond to requests with product suggestions, consumer reviews and links to merchant websites. Perplexity AI late last year began letting subscribers pay for online purchases without leaving its app. Amazon in April added a 'Buy for Me' mode to its Rufus digital assistant, allowing users to command it to make purchases at retailer websites off Amazon's platform. Walmart head of technology Hari Vasudev recently spoke about adding an AI agent to the retail behemoth's online shopping portal, while also working with partners to make sure their digital agents keep Walmart products in mind. Global payment networks Visa and Mastercard in April each said their technical systems were modernized to allow payment transactions by digital agents. 'As AI agents start to take over the bulk of product discovery and the decision-making process, retailers must consider how to optimize for this new layer of AI shoppers,' said Elize Watson of Clarkston Consulting. Retailers are likely to be left groping in the dark when it comes to what makes a product attractive to AI agents, according to Watson. Analyst Zino does not expect AI shoppers to cause an e-commerce industry upheaval, but he does see the technology benefitting Google and Meta. Not only do the Internet rivals have massive amounts of data about their users, but they are also among frontrunners in the AI race. 'They probably have more information on the consumer than anyone else out there,' Zino said of Google and Meta. Tech company access to data about users hits the hot-button issue of online privacy and who should control personal information. Google plans to refine consumer profiles based on what people search for and promises that shoppers will need to authorize access to additional information such as email or app use. Trusting a chatbot with one's buying decisions may spook some people, and while the technology might be in place the legal and ethical framework for it is not. 'The agent economy is here,' said PSE Consulting managing director Chris Jones. 'The next phase of e-commerce will depend on whether we can trust machines to buy on our behalf.'
CNA
16-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Weeks after Amazon's Alexa+ AI launch, a mystery: where are the users?
SAN FRANCISCO :Alexa, where are your users? More than six weeks after began rolling out the new Alexa+ generative artificial-intelligence-powered voice assistant to hundreds of thousands of people, there is scant evidence it is in regular customers' hands. The new service was meant to be a triumph for Amazon after several delays in revamping Alexa in the age of AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The company signaled its significance by bringing CEO Andy Jassy to a February press event in New York where it showcased Alexa+'s capabilities and promised customers would start getting invite access in late March. 'There seems to be no one who actually has it,' said Avi Greengart, lead analyst at Techsponential, who attended the Alexa+ announcement event. 'This fits a pattern of a lot of companies announcing services or products when they are awfully close to being ready, but not quite – that last mile is a lot farther away than they anticipated,' he said. In an ultimately unsuccessful effort to locate real-world users of Alexa+, Reuters searched dozens of news sites, YouTube, TikTok, X, BlueSky and Meta's Instagram and Facebook, as well as Amazon's Twitch and reviews of Echo voice-assistant devices on Two who posted on Reddit claimed to have used the service, but did not provide Reuters with hard evidence and their identities could not be corroborated. "Hundreds of thousands of customers now have access to Alexa+ — of course, some are employees and their families, but the overwhelming majority are customers that requested early access,' said an Amazon spokesperson. That is up from the approximately 100,000 users that Amazon reported on May 1. Amazon did not say why there were no verifiable public reviews or reactions to the new service and declined to make available for an interview any active Alexa+ users. The company does not require nondisclosure agreements in exchange for Alexa+ access, a spokesperson said. The rollout of Amazon AI-assisted Alexa+ is proceeding slowly and the service has struggled with speed in answering some questions or prompts, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. It also occasionally generates inaccurate or fabricated information, like other AI models, and is expensive to operate, the people said. Accessed mainly through Amazon televisions and Echo devices, Alexa can set timers, answer search queries and tell the weather if a user requests it out loud. While Apple's Siri voice assistant preceded the original Alexa by three years, it was the Amazon service that supercharged the acceptance of voice assistants. The overhaul resulting in the generative AI-infused Alexa+ is meant to revitalize the decade-old service and help Amazon compete with chatbots from OpenAI, Meta and others. Amazon has plowed billions into developing Alexa since it was introduced in 2014, but it has been unprofitable and the vision of customers using it for voice-shopping never materialized. Technology companies typically rely on a mix of analysts, product reviewers, social media influencers and reporters to help get the word out about their newest devices or services. Apple, considered a master of marketing, gives launch-event attendees limited access to its iPhones or laptops for initial reviews, followed shortly by lengthier scrutiny within days or weeks of announcement. Amazon itself gave reviewers time to test out its new color Kindle device at an event in October before making it available to buy just two weeks later. In September 2023, Amazon showed off a prior iteration of the generative AI-infused Alexa and said customers would be getting an "early preview" of it within weeks. It never came. Alexa+ will be able to respond to multiple prompts in sequence and even act as an 'agent' on behalf of users by taking actions for them without their direct involvement. That contrasts with the current iteration, which generally handles only a single request at a time. During Amazon's first-quarter earnings call two weeks ago, Jassy said more than 100,000 people were already using the new voice service and that 'people are really liking Alexa+ thus far.' Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, said that by leaving a large gap between product launch and general availability, Amazon was failing to build anticipation for Alexa+. "Just lean on your curated YouTube or TikTok advocates and tell them what to talk about,' he said. 'Instead, this makes it look like they are worried about something.' Techsponential's Greengart said the February Alexa event could be seen as an early warning sign because attendees were not allowed to try the service themselves, instead being shuffled into breakout sessions where product managers ran through well-rehearsed routines and answered limited questions. Reuters, which attended the event, was also unable to try out the service. By contrast, at Amazon's 2014 launch for its Fire Phone, users could hold the device and try its features. The original Echo device, running the Alexa service, became available weeks after its announcement in November 2014 and users went public with their reactions that December. The upgraded Alexa is designed to allow users to seek shopping advice such as vacation outfits and to receive aggregated news stories. As shown, it is meant to carry out more complicated requests, such as ordering food for delivery while also remembering a user's dietary preferences. To demonstrate Alexa+'s broad use, Amazon pointed to an April TechRadar story that cited an anonymous Reddit post from a user claiming to have tested the service. The Reddit post has since been deleted.
Reuters
16-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Weeks after Amazon's Alexa+ AI launch, a mystery: where are the users?
SAN FRANCISCO, May 16 (Reuters) - Alexa, where are your users? More than six weeks after (AMZN.O), opens new tab began rolling out the new Alexa+ generative artificial-intelligence-powered voice assistant to hundreds of thousands of people, there is scant evidence it is in regular customers' hands. The new service was meant to be a triumph for Amazon after several delays in revamping Alexa in the age of AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The company signaled its significance by bringing CEO Andy Jassy to a February press event in New York where it showcased Alexa+'s capabilities and promised customers would start getting invite access in late March. 'There seems to be no one who actually has it,' said Avi Greengart, lead analyst at Techsponential, who attended the Alexa+ announcement event. 'This fits a pattern of a lot of companies announcing services or products when they are awfully close to being ready, but not quite – that last mile is a lot farther away than they anticipated,' he said. In an ultimately unsuccessful effort to locate real-world users of Alexa+, Reuters searched dozens of news sites, YouTube, TikTok, X, BlueSky and Meta's Instagram and Facebook, as well as Amazon's Twitch and reviews of Echo voice-assistant devices on Two who posted on Reddit claimed to have used the service, but did not provide Reuters with hard evidence and their identities could not be corroborated. "Hundreds of thousands of customers now have access to Alexa+ — of course, some are employees and their families, but the overwhelming majority are customers that requested early access,' said an Amazon spokesperson. That is up from the approximately 100,000 users that Amazon reported on May 1. Amazon did not say why there were no verifiable public reviews or reactions to the new service and declined to make available for an interview any active Alexa+ users. The company does not require nondisclosure agreements in exchange for Alexa+ access, a spokesperson said. The rollout of Amazon AI-assisted Alexa+ is proceeding slowly and the service has struggled with speed in answering some questions or prompts, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. It also occasionally generates inaccurate or fabricated information, like other AI models, and is expensive to operate, the people said. Accessed mainly through Amazon televisions and Echo devices, Alexa can set timers, answer search queries and tell the weather if a user requests it out loud. While Apple's (AAPL.O), opens new tab Siri voice assistant preceded the original Alexa by three years, it was the Amazon service that supercharged the acceptance of voice assistants. The overhaul resulting in the generative AI-infused Alexa+ is meant to revitalize the decade-old service and help Amazon compete with chatbots from OpenAI, Meta (META.O), opens new tab and others. Amazon has plowed billions into developing Alexa since it was introduced in 2014, but it has been unprofitable and the vision of customers using it for voice-shopping never materialized. Technology companies typically rely on a mix of analysts, product reviewers, social media influencers and reporters to help get the word out about their newest devices or services. Apple, considered a master of marketing, gives launch-event attendees limited access to its iPhones or laptops for initial reviews, followed shortly by lengthier scrutiny within days or weeks of announcement. Amazon itself gave reviewers time to test out its new color Kindle device at an event in October before making it available to buy just two weeks later. In September 2023, Amazon showed off a prior iteration of the generative AI-infused Alexa and said customers would be getting an "early preview" of it within weeks. It never came. Alexa+ will be able to respond to multiple prompts in sequence and even act as an 'agent' on behalf of users by taking actions for them without their direct involvement. That contrasts with the current iteration, which generally handles only a single request at a time. During Amazon's first-quarter earnings call two weeks ago, Jassy said more than 100,000 people were already using the new voice service and that 'people are really liking Alexa+ thus far.' Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, said that by leaving a large gap between product launch and general availability, Amazon was failing to build anticipation for Alexa+. "Just lean on your curated YouTube or TikTok advocates and tell them what to talk about,' he said. 'Instead, this makes it look like they are worried about something.' Techsponential's Greengart said the February Alexa event could be seen as an early warning sign because attendees were not allowed to try the service themselves, instead being shuffled into breakout sessions where product managers ran through well-rehearsed routines and answered limited questions. Reuters, which attended the event, was also unable to try out the service. By contrast, at Amazon's 2014 launch for its Fire Phone, users could hold the device and try its features. The original Echo device, running the Alexa service, became available weeks after its announcement in November 2014 and users went public with their reactions that December. The upgraded Alexa is designed to allow users to seek shopping advice such as vacation outfits and to receive aggregated news stories. As shown, it is meant to carry out more complicated requests, such as ordering food for delivery while also remembering a user's dietary preferences. To demonstrate Alexa+'s broad use, Amazon pointed to an April TechRadar story, opens new tab that cited an anonymous Reddit post from a user claiming to have tested the service. The Reddit post, opens new tab has since been deleted.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump wants Apple to make iPhones in the US. Will it ever happen?
President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Apple to shift manufacturing to the United States, saying he recently told the company's chief executive, Tim Cook, that he disapproves of the decision to move part of its supply chain to India. "I said to him, 'My friend, I treated you very good. You're coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you're building all over India. I don't want you building in India,'" Trump said Thursday in Qatar. Trump appeared to reference Apple's vow in February to invest $500 billion in the U.S over the next four years, which the company says will go toward additional hiring and a new server factory in Texas. But a U.S.-bound relocation of Apple's supply chain is highly unlikely, industry analysts told ABC News, pointing to the time and expense necessary to overhaul production -- as well as the ongoing cost of higher wages commanded by workers in the U.S. In theory, the U.S. could host final assembly of Apple products like the iPhone, but even that would take several years and result in higher prices for shoppers, who may then turn to cheaper alternatives, some analysts said. MORE: Inflation is dropping but these prices are still soaring "Anything is possible, provided you have a long enough timeframe and don't care about profitability," Avi Greengart, lead analyst at research firm Techsponential, told ABC News. "It's an incredibly global supply chain. If you want to move it to the U.S., you're talking about many years, possibly decades," Greengart added. Trump last month exempted phones, computers and chips from so-called "reciprocal tariffs" imposed on China-made goods, which at that time amounted to a 125% levy. The move also excluded such products from a 10% across-the-board tariff imposed on nearly all imports. The policy change provided major cost savings for Apple, which produces about 90% of its smartphones in China. "I speak to Tim Cook. I helped Tim Cook, recently, and that whole business," Trump told reporters at the Oval Office days after the exemption took effect. On Monday, Trump temporarily slashed the reciprocal tariffs on China from 125% to 10% as the U.S. and China hold trade negotiations. China still faces 20% tariffs over its role in the fentanyl trade, bringing total levies on Chinese goods to 30%. On an earnings call earlier this month, Cook said the company had shifted production of iPhones sold in the U.S. to India as a means of avoiding high tariffs. "The majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. will have India as their country of origin," Cook said. However, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said this month in an interview with Fox News that Trump's vision for ushering in a "golden age" for America involved enticing manufacturers to open factories and build in the United States. And, he explained, tariffs play into that strategy. He said that the idea is "to reshore manufacturing, to build here, to have those people who build here not pay any tariffs." "We're going to have huge jobs in manufacturing. You've heard the president talk about trillions and trillions of factories being built in America," he said in the interview on May 11. "Those are construction jobs, starting now, and then those products will not have tariffs on them." Cook noted the company already manufactures some components stateside. "During calendar year 2025, we expect to source more than 19 billion chips from a dozen states, including tens of millions of advanced chips being made in Arizona this year. We also source glass used in iPhone from an American company," Cook said. "All told, we have more than 9,000 suppliers in the US across all 50 states." Still, U.S.-based manufacturing makes up a small share of the company's supply chain – and any major expansion would take years and carry significant costs, analysts said. Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at the investment firm Wedbush who tracks the tech industry, said last month that it would take three years and cost $30 billion for Apple to shift 10% of its supply chain to the U.S. The price of a U.S.-made iPhone could rise as high as $3,500, Ives said. "Price points would move up so dramatically it's hard to comprehend," Ives added, describing the notion of a U.S.-made iPhone as a "nonstarter." MORE: What's in the US-China trade framework? The price of an iPhone 16 Pro would jump 25% alone, due to added U.S. labor expenses, Bank of America Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan told clients last month in a note shared with ABC News. Such a price hike, which excludes for instance the added cost of factory construction, would bring a $999 smartphone to about $1,250. A small share of consumers would buy a U.S.-made iPhone even after a significant price hike, but the "vast majority" would opt for cheaper alternatives, Ben Bajarin, analyst at research firm Creative Strategies, told ABC News. The upward pressure on prices as a result of high U.S. labor costs would render domestic manufacturing nearly impossible, presenting Apple with a dilemma, Bajarin said. "Production will never happen in the U.S. -- unless we have absolute, fully automated assembly, which completely defeats the purpose because humans won't be doing the jobs," Bajarin added. Trump wants Apple to make iPhones in the US. Will it ever happen? originally appeared on
