Amazon is bolstering its efforts to combat scammers with the help of artificial intelligence, announcing a new feature that leverages its consumer AI service, Alexa for Shopping. The move comes as the e-commerce giant faces an increasing number of suspicious messages from customers, with over 360,000 individuals seeking clarification each year.

Customers will now be able to tap into this AI capability, asking Alexa to verify the authenticity of a message they've received from Amazon. The system analyzes a range of factors, including sender information, content, timing, and metadata, to determine whether a communication is legitimate or not.

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Amazon's has already shown promise

Amazon's AI has already shown promise in identifying scams, with the company claiming that its system can "definitively" confirm whether a message originated from its own systems. As customers report more suspicious messages, the system will continue to improve, allowing it to detect scams even more effectively over time.

This latest development follows Amazon's efforts to address the growing scam problem, which has seen fake order confirmations, Prime membership renewal alerts, account suspension warnings, package delivery notifications, and job scams all become increasingly prevalent. The company has already introduced an email address, verify@amazon.com, that allows customers to report suspicious messages and receive a response confirming whether they are legitimate or not.

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The addition of Alexa for Shopping is another example of Amazon's shift towards leveraging its AI-powered assistant to provide proactive help with shopping-related queries. Today, Alexa can source personalized deals, create shopping guides, help customers reorder everyday items, offer AI product overviews, transcribe handwritten shopping lists, and more.

Alexa for Shopping is now available on both the Amazon website and mobile app, allowing customers to access this new feature at their convenience. As with all our coverage, we may earn a small commission when you purchase through links in our articles – but rest assured that it doesn't affect our editorial independence.