Amazon CEO says shoppers will choose retailers over third-party AI platforms

While some retailers have taken the “If you can’t beat them, join them” approach to third-party AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Amazon is confident customers will ultimately choose its own AI-powered offerings over dealing with a middleman.

Faced with a choice between a “horizontal agent” and an in-house offering, CEO Andy Jassy told shareholders last week, “a lot of customers are ultimately going to choose to use a great shopping agent from that retailer.”

Here’s his reasoning: The four things shoppers want are broad selection, low prices, fast delivery, and a “retailer that they can trust and that takes care of them,” Jassy said, adding while horizontal agents are “pretty good at aggregating selection,” retailers are “much better at doing all four of those items.”

Amazon isn’t writing off the possibility of working with third-party agents, but Jassy was insistent both parties need to work together to deliver a better customer experience.

“These horizontal agents don’t have any of your shopping history. They get a lot of the product details wrong. They get a lot of the pricing wrong,” he said. “We have to try to find a customer experience together that’s better and a value exchange that makes sense for both parties.”

• The backdrop for these comments is a massive surge in the amount of referral traffic to retailers from AI platforms. AI-driven traffic to retailers jumped 693% year over year in the 2025 holiday season, per the latest Adobe Analytics data.

For now though, Amazon is touting the success of Rufus, its in-house AI shopping agent, which 300 million customers used in 2025 and with which were 60% more likely to complete a purchase. “I’m very optimistic about the customer experience that will ultimately be what customers use for agentic shopping,” Jassy said, “and I think it’s good for customers.”