Amazon has entered the growing space of text-based AI interaction, announcing a new feature that allows customers to shop on its platform by sending simple text messages to its Alexa AI assistant. The announcement, made on a Friday, positions Amazon alongside a range of AI-powered shopping tools already available to consumers - tools that let users browse and buy products through conversational messaging interfaces.

The timing of the launch is notable. It follows Amazon's decision in September to block Meta's Muse AI shopping assistant from querying Amazon's product listings. Muse, along with similar tools like Instinct, had been allowing users to search for and purchase products across multiple retailers through natural language text conversations. By cutting off third-party access while simultaneously launching its own competing feature, Amazon appears to be staking out its own territory in the AI-powered shopping space ahead of the critical holiday retail period.

How the Text-Based Shopping Feature Works

Amazon said that a select group of U.S. customers will receive an invitation via text message, prompting them to activate the new shopping feature. Once enabled, users can send natural language messages to Alexa to carry out a range of shopping tasks. These include searching for specific products, adding items to their cart, and completing purchases - all without opening the Amazon app or website.

The feature is built on top of the shopping-focused improvements Amazon has already introduced to Alexa in recent months. As a result, it carries over a broad set of capabilities, including managing shopping lists, monitoring product prices, searching across the broader web, comparing items, and checking the status of existing orders.

The assistant also supports image-based queries. Users can send a photo of a product or an image of someone wearing a particular outfit, and Alexa will search Amazon's listings for similar items. This kind of visual search integration reflects a broader push by retailers to reduce friction in the path from discovery to purchase.

Amazon added that Alexa will gradually build a profile of each user's preferences over time, using that information to make personalized product suggestions in future conversations.

Waitlist Available for Users Not Yet Invited

For customers who have not yet received an invitation to try the feature, Amazon has opened a waitlist through which they can register their interest. The company indicated that a wider rollout is planned over the coming weeks, suggesting the current phase is a controlled launch designed to test and refine the experience before broader availability.

A Broader Shift Toward AI-Driven Commerce

Amazon's move reflects a wider trend taking shape across the consumer technology and e-commerce industries. As AI agents become more capable and user adoption grows, major platforms are increasingly looking to own the interface through which customers interact with their services. Rather than allowing third-party AI tools to sit between users and their platforms, companies like Amazon appear to be prioritizing the development of in-house alternatives.

The dynamic playing out here is similar to what other consumer platforms are navigating. Last month, food delivery company DoorDash disclosed that external AI agents had collectively placed only a few hundred orders on its platform to date - a figure that underscores how early-stage third-party agent adoption still is. In response, DoorDash said it intends to focus its efforts on expanding its own text-based ordering assistant, which it launched in September, rather than betting on third-party tools to drive volume.

The pattern suggests that while the market for consumer-facing AI agents is expanding rapidly, the major platforms facilitating commerce are moving to ensure they control the experience directly. For Amazon, launching a native text shopping tool while simultaneously restricting a competitor's access to its data sends a clear signal about how it intends to approach this emerging channel - particularly as the holiday shopping season, one of the most commercially significant periods of the year, gets underway.