Amazon launches AI agent to help sellers complete tasks and manage their businesses | TechCrunch

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it’s introducing an always-on AI agent that will help sellers on its platform run their businesses. The company is updating Seller Assistant, its AI tool for third-party sellers, to help handle tasks on the seller’s behalf.

“Our agentic AI capabilities are designed to work seamlessly throughout the entire selling experience, which means sellers can go from handling every task themselves to collaborating with an intelligent assistant that works proactively on their behalf around the clock, while always keeping sellers in control,” Amazon wrote in a press release. “Seller Assistant will be able to handle everything from routine operations to complex business strategy, so sellers can focus on innovation and growth.”

Seller Assistant can now not only monitor account health and inventory, but also help develop strategies and take action when authorized, Amazon says.

For example, when a seller is reviewing their inventory, Seller Assistant will flag slow-moving products before they incur long-term storage fees and recommend whether it would make sense to leave the item as it is, lower the price, or remove it altogether. Seller Assistant will also be able to analyze demand patterns and prepare shipment recommendations.

Seller Assistant continuously monitors a seller’s account and flags potential issues and actions, such as inventory listings that might violate new product safety regulations. Additionally, it can automatically ensure that all of a seller’s products meet compliance requirements in every country they’re selling in.

Agent-driven commerce is an area of intense interest for tech companies, which imagine a future in which agents can initiate deals or make purchases on behalf of their clients. On Tuesday, Google released a new payments protocol for agentic transactions, although Amazon was not named as a partner.

Amazon also announced that it’s bringing agentic AI to advertising, allowing sellers to develop ads through conversational prompts.

Today’s announcement marks the latest AI tools that Amazon has rolled out for third-party sellers on its platform. Other tools include a video generator for ads and a generative AI tool that helps merchants improve their product listings.