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Amazon Lens Live Turns Any Camera Into a Shopping Cart

By: Zenia Pearl V. Nicolas Amazon is rolling out Lens Live, a new AI-powered feature that lets shoppers point their phone cameras at any object and instantly see similar products available on Amazon. The update builds on Amazon Lens, which already supported image uploads and barcode scans. Now, with real-time recognition, customers can browse a swipeable carousel of matches, add items to their cart, or save them to wishlists all without leaving the camera view. The tool is initially available to tens of millions of iOS users in the U.S., with plans to expand in the coming weeks.

AI in Action: Rufus Joins the Experience

What sets Lens Live apart from earlier iterations is its integration with

Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant

. As customers pan their camera around a room or focus on a specific item, Rufus provides quick product summaries, answers suggested questions, and highlights what makes each item stand out. The assistant’s conversational approach is meant to speed up research and decision-making, giving shoppers more context before hitting “buy”. Amazon says Lens Live uses a lightweight computer vision model to detect objects in real time and a deep learning embedding system to match them against billions of listings. Running on

AWS SageMaker and OpenSearch

, the feature is designed for both accuracy and scale.

Why Visual Search Matters Now

The release of Lens Live reflects a broader trend in e-commerce: visual search is becoming central to product discovery. Competitors are pushing similar innovations Google Lens tailors results to specific stores, Pinterest emphasizes style recognition, and eBay has tested virtual try-ons. Pinterest CEO Bill Ready even described his platform as having “effectively become an AI-enabled shopping assistant” earlier this year. For Amazon, the stakes are higher. By linking visual discovery directly to checkout, the company shortens the path from curiosity to purchase, strengthening its hold over impulse shopping. Tech analysts say the move could make comparison shopping even more seamless, especially for consumers already browsing in physical stores.

A Double-Edged Sword

While the technology promises convenience, some observers worry about its impact on consumer behavior. By turning the world into a catalog, Lens Live could encourage more impulsive buying.

TechRadar

noted that “every object becomes a possible purchase, and your camera redirects your buying impulse in seconds”. Others see it as a natural progression of Amazon’s AI-driven strategy. In the past year alone, the retailer has launched AI review summaries, personalized product prompts, and fit prediction tools. Lens Live may simply be the most visible and literal expression of that push.

Shaping the Future of Shopping

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has described AI as a way to “reinvent” customer experience. Lens Live is part of that vision, positioning Amazon not just as a marketplace but as a

real-time shopping assistant

. If successful, it could redefine how people interact with retail platforms, merging offline discovery with instant online purchasing. For now, Lens Live is limited to iOS users in the U.S. But if adoption is strong, it may not be long before the feature becomes a default part of how millions of people shop, without typing a single word.

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