Amazon launched Update Me When, an Alexa for Shopping feature that pushes a notification once something a shopper is waiting on actually happens, such as a favorite brand rolling out a product line, a musician announcing tour dates, or an author publishing a new book. Shoppers have to set each alert themselves for now. The feature pulls Alexa away from answering questions on demand and toward flagging the moment that might set off a purchase. Amazon showed it off Tuesday alongside other AI shopping tools it has been building, among them price alerts that fire at a chosen price or discount and can buy the item outright if the shopper allows it, AI overviews on search and product pages, carts assembled from past orders, and transcription of handwritten shopping lists.
