Amazon just took a major leap forward in the AI agent arms race with a new system called Nova Act—and it may have some big implications for consumers.
The tech giant’s new AI can take control of a web browser and autonomously perform tasks like booking reservations, ordering food, and filling out forms, all without human intervention.
But here’s the twist:
Amazon is building Nova Act directly into its upcoming Alexa+ upgrade. That potentially puts a powerful, general-purpose AI agent into the hands (or homes) of millions of people worldwide.
Is this a big deal—or just another over-hyped research project?
To get some answers, I asked Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer for his take on the latest developments on Episode 143 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
Until recently, Amazon hasn’t exactly been front and center when it comes to generative AI breakthroughs. Other than the company’s investments in Anthropic and some early generative AI shopping features, we haven’t seen many headlines about Amazon’s large-scale AI efforts.
But that’s starting to change.
“I think the key here is it’s starting to change the conversation around Amazon and their AI ambitions,” says Roetzer.
He notes that talk of Amazon’s AI capabilities, on our podcast and in other circles, is becoming more frequent as the company appears to be accelerating its AI work.
Nova Act is Amazon’s way of letting developers (and eventually consumers) build and use AI automations that navigate websites, fill out forms, and complete tasks most humans do in a browser. It’s still a research preview, but the potential is massive—especially when you consider how seamlessly it could integrate with Alexa+.
At the end of the day, Nova Act is yet another “agentic” AI—something we’ve also seen from OpenAI and Anthropic. But it has one huge differentiator: reach. If Amazon successfully bakes Nova Act into Alexa+, the company might be able to put a web-savvy AI helper in millions of homes almost overnight.
That would be welcome for the company, because they may have some catching up to do.
“They weren’t new to AI, they just got sideswiped by generative AI,” says Roetzer. ”And they are still trying to play catch up now on a thing they should have been leading on.”
That might sound critical—but it also underscores just how big a pivot this could be for Amazon’s entire approach to AI.
At the same time Nova Act was announced, Amazon also launched a brand-new AI shopping feature called Buy for Me to a subset of US customers in its Shopping app. The concept is simple: If you search on Amazon for an item that’s unavailable on the platform, an AI agent will go to a third-party site, fill in your billing info, and place the order for you.
That’s different from the agents on offer from OpenAI and Google, which require a human to actually put in credit card information before a purchase happens.
That might sound convenient, but it also raises questions. Should you trust an AI with your payment info? What if it makes a mistake—or buys something unexpected?
“In this case, Amazon is basically asking users to trust them and their privacy and their ability to securely protect your information,” he says. “And you are trusting that their agent is not going to accidentally buy a thousand pairs of something instead of one.”
All of this begs the question: Will we really let an AI agent handle our forms, schedule our dinner reservations, and buy things from third-party sites—especially when the tech is still early and occasionally glitchy?
The short answer: It depends.
Early adopters may jump at the chance to outsource tedious online tasks, while more cautious users (and businesses) wait on the sidelines to see how reliably Nova Act performs at scale. Either way, the direction is clear. Amazon is betting that AI agents are the future of our interactions online—and that it can be a major player in this space.
A few things stand out about Amazon’s push into AI agents:
But if Amazon has learned anything from its years of success in ecommerce, it’s that users value convenience—and are often willing to trust technology that saves them time and hassle. Nova Act may just be the next iteration of that Amazonian obsession with removing friction from everyday life.
For now, keep your eye on Nova Act’s rollout, and whether early adopters report smooth sailing (or a cartful of unwanted purchases). Either way, Amazon is making its move. And with the power of Alexa+ behind it, the AI agent space might never be the same.