Finding exactly what you’re looking online can definitely feel like a chore. You see something you love in a photo, but then you have to try to describe it in a search bar, which can lead to endless scrolling and frustration.
Well, Amazon is looking to solve that problem with its latest innovation: Amazon Lens Live. This new feature, powered by generative AI, is a significant leap forward in visual search technology and promises to make your shopping experience more seamless and efficient than ever.
How is Lens Live Different from the Old Lens?
If you’ve ever used the original Amazon Lens feature, you know it was a useful tool, but it felt a little clunky. You had to take a picture of an item or upload an image, and then wait for the app to find a match. It was a stop-and-go process. Lens Live, however, changes everything by operating in real-time.
When you open the Amazon Shopping app and activate Lens Live, your phone’s camera instantly turns into a dynamic shopping assistant. As you pan the camera across a room or focus on an item, the AI immediately starts scanning and identifying products.
A swipeable carousel of matching items appears at the bottom of your screen, giving you instant product matches and comparisons without a single click.
The Power of AI and Rufus
Lens Live is built on a sophisticated foundation of AI technology, but you don’t need to be a tech expert to appreciate what it does. A lightweight computer vision model on your device identifies objects instantly, while a deep learning model compares what you’re seeing against billions of products in Amazon’s catalog.
What truly sets this feature apart is the integration of Rufus, Amazon’s generative AI shopping assistant. As you’re viewing products through the camera, Rufus provides quick summaries and suggests questions to help you learn more.
This means you can get instant insights on product features and materials without ever leaving the camera view. It’s like having a well-informed sales associate with you at all times.
Shopping Actions, Simplified
Beyond real-time scanning and AI insights, Lens Live streamlines the entire shopping process. You can now tap an item in the camera view to focus the search, add products directly to your cart, or save items to your wish list.
This all-in-one experience minimizes the number of steps between finding a product you like and making a purchase.
This new technology is a clear signal of where the future of shopping is headed. It’s about making product discovery effortless and immediate.
For us shoppers, this means we can spend less time searching and more time finding great products and deals, whether we’re in a store, at a friend’s house, or simply browsing online.


