With a planned investment of $35 billion in India by 2030, Amazon is accelerating efforts to build a comprehensive artificial intelligence ecosystem spanning customers, sellers, operations, advertising and its workforce. The investment, announced in 2025, will support business expansion across the company’s India operations with a focus on AI-driven digitisation, export growth and job creation. By integrating AI across its consumer platform, logistics network and seller ecosystem, Amazon aims to reshape how digital commerce operates in one of its fastest-growing markets, said Rajeev Rastogi, Vice President – Machine Learning, Amazon India.

At the consumer end, Amazon is embedding AI across the shopping journey to make discovery faster and more intuitive. The company’s Rufus AI assistant provides personalised recommendations, price trends and short visual explainers while understanding customers’ preferences and order histories, he said. 

“Lens AI enables visual-first searches using images, screenshots, or barcodes. It lets customers show what they're looking for, upload text lists, or photograph pantry shelves to create shopping carts,” said Rastogi.

Augmented reality through “View in Your Room” allows shoppers to visualise furniture and décor in their homes before purchasing. AI-generated review highlights summarise key product feedback, helping customers quickly understand product strengths and concerns.

“By bridging barriers such as language, literacy, and digital familiarity, AI is making online shopping inclusive from metros to rural towns,” Rastogi said. Amazon’s AI push also extends to the millions of sellers on its platform. The company is deploying generative AI tools to help sellers create listings, forecast demand and optimise pricing. “Sellers can generate compelling product titles, descriptions, and keywords from minimal input--- text, images, or website URLs. AI also helps with demand forecasting, catalog accuracy, and deal recommendations, making operations more efficient,” Rastogi said.

"Today, over a lakh sellers use our AI tools, and 94% of them report improved business outcomes. What’s most exciting is how AI is leveling the playing field, giving small businesses the same capabilities that were once available only to large enterprises,” Rastogi said.

Behind the scenes, AI is also reshaping Amazon’s operations and logistics network. Algorithms optimise fulfilment centre operations by determining the shortest picking routes, improving packing efficiency and validating delivery addresses. Machine learning models predict demand and optimise inventory placement across the network.

“AI predicts demand, detects emerging trends, and optimises inventory allocation. Earlier, a seller sending stock to a fulfilment centre waited 2–3 days for confirmation. That’s 72 hours of uncertainty affecting working capital and planning,” Rastogi said. 

AI is also being deployed in quality monitoring. A computer-vision experiment that initially analysed images of vegetables to detect defects has evolved into an automated shelf-monitoring system across multiple stores, he added. IoT cameras capture product images while AI identifies quality issues, helping reduce waste and improve freshness.

Advertising is another area being transformed by AI. Amazon Ads now offers tools such as Creative Studio, Image Generator and Video Generator to help sellers create promotional content without expensive photo shoots or production work. 

Internally, Amazon is deploying human-centric AI tools to enhance employee productivity and learning. 

The company is also exploring the next frontier of artificial intelligence—agentic systems.

“The biggest emerging trend is Agentic AI — systems that can plan, reason, and take actions autonomously to achieve user-defined goals,” Rastogi said. Unlike traditional models that follow static instructions, these systems dynamically select tools and complete tasks independently. Amazon is already applying such systems internally. “For example, we’re using Agentic AI to automate SOP-driven tasks for Account Managers… By letting AI interpret SOPs and execute the steps directly, we expect to cut the time spent on issue resolution by roughly 35%,” Rastogi added.

Beyond commerce, the company’s AI strategy includes broader digital empowerment. Amazon has already digitised more than 12 million small businesses in India and aims to extend AI access to 15 million businesses, he said.