A.I. Is coming to your Amazon storefront. Are you ready?

On Tuesday, the company announced a preview of Amazon Q-- a chatbot trained on data from 17 years' worth of Amazon Web Services insights--which helps businesses simplify their e-commerce operations on the platform by handling time-consuming tasks like sourcing internal information for product listings and ads. Additionally, it's connected with over 40...

Ready or not, A.I. is changing the way we work–now and in the future. And Amazon just threw its hat into the arena.

On Tuesday, the company announced a preview of Amazon Q–a chatbot trained on data from 17 years’ worth of Amazon Web Services insights–which helps businesses simplify their e-commerce operations on the platform by handling time-consuming tasks like sourcing internal information for product listings and ads.

Using information it knows about a business, Q can answer questions about building a web app, or troubleshoot errors like warning alerts in Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, Lambda, and Amazon ECS consoles. It can also complete actionable requests, like finding brand guidelines for logo usage. And for speedy comprehension tasks, it can generate summaries and extract insights from reports, so business users can save time sifting through the information themselves.

Along with AWS, Q is embedded in Amazon QuickSight and Connect and will be soon in AWS Supply Chain–so business owners, marketers, customer service agents, sales representatives, inventory managers, and more–can benefit from the tool. Additionally, it’s connected with over 40 third-party apps, like Google Drive, Slack, and Salesforce, so business owners can work with the chat box across other channels. It also provides administrative controls, so business owners can customize responses, block topics, and filter the questions that either employees or customers ask.

“Eventually, with the help of Amazon Q, [businesses] can ask for specific product information scattered across documents stored among different departments,” says Marcel Hollerbach, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Productsup, a product-to-consumer agency. “What would take days or even weeks to do manually can now be done instantaneously, speeding up go-to-market and ensuring accuracy in product content.”

Some brands, like Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Odyssey, a wellness beverage, are eager to get a jump on the A.I. assistant. Founder and CEO Scott Frohman says that Amazon plays a vital role to his brand, and Q will be a valuable tool. “Q is definitely a game changer for us,” he says. Frohman thinks Q’s insights will particularly help the brand make data-driven decisions, identify trends, and optimize product listings, which he anticipates will result in even greater sales performance on the platform.

Barry Monahan, vice president of Venice, California-based Moon Juice nutritional supplements and vitamins, is still figuring out what Q means for business. He anticipates it’ll help the brand be more productive, but having experienced massive growth on Amazon this year, he’s not in a hurry to find out. Moon Juice plans to experiment with the A.I. assistant next year, but Monahan has few expectations right now.

Other brands, like Kent, Ohio-based Boogie Board reusable writing tablets, are taking the new tool as an opportunity to refresh on A.I. ethics. “Companies like Amazon have the scale, capability, and responsibility to push this forward. This is a piece of the puzzle that many brands will be keeping an eye on,” says Asad Khan, CEO of Kent Displays, which makes Boogie Board. He agrees, however, that Q will be a good tool for kick-starting ideas and building out projects. He adds that “using the tool to craft data-driven customer personas and profiles that can be applied to the e-comm side of the business will be interesting for brands to consider as well.”

Once the free preview period ends March 1, 2024, Q will offer tiered pricing for business users starting at $20 per person per month. The second-tier Amazon Q Builder will cost $25 per month and have additional features for developers and IT workers. Specially tailored plans for Amazon QuickSight, Amazon Connect, and Amazon Supply Chain are coming soon, with tiers ranging from $20 per month to $250 per month.

Hollerbach adds that “introducing any new tool to the workplace takes time for employees to get comfortable with it, so businesses would be smart to start acclimating themselves with enterprise A.I. tools now. History has shown that the early adopters of such tools leap far ahead of competitors that sit back.”

(c) 2023 Mansueto Ventures LLC; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.