Amazon launched an audio “Hear the Highlights” shopping feature last year available through a button in the Amazon Shopping mobile app, and on Tuesday, it added a “Join the Chat” AI-powered feature to make the audio product summary experience “a conversation customers can join and customize.”
Hear the Highlights offers short-form audio product summaries on millions of product detail pages, featuring AI-generated hosts that summarize key product features drawn from product details, customer reviews, and information from across the web. In Tuesday’s announcement, Amazon explained:
“Today, Amazon is launching Join the chat, a new interactive feature in Hear the highlights that allows customers to ask AI hosts questions via text or voice while listening to an audio summary of a product. The AI hosts take the question, deliver an answer in real time, and then pick back up where they left off.
“With Join the chat, customers move from listening to participating. At any point in the episode, they can ask a question such as “Is this coffee maker better for a beginner or someone with barista experience?” or “Do people find this sweater itchy?” or “Is this product dishwasher safe?” The AI hosts incorporate the question into the conversation, deliver a tailored response grounded in product details, customer reviews, and other publicly available information, and then seamlessly continue the episode. Customers aren’t interrupting the experience—they’re part of it.”
Each Hear the Highlights “episode” begins with an AI-generated script that adapts in real time to shoppers’ questions. “Advanced text-to-speech technology then brings the response to life, so the hosts reply naturally and match the tone and energy of the original episode,” according to Amazon’s April 28th announcement.
