| Blog | 
18 Feb 2026
Amazon CEO about AI Shopping: Retailers vs. Third-Party Agents
Author: Oleksandr Kovalov
Role: Founder & CEO @ ANavigator
Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, said something last week that didn’t get nearly enough attention. He told shareholders that when AI-powered shopping becomes mainstream, customers will end up buying through retailers — not through standalone AI platforms like ChatGPT. His reasoning wasn’t complicated: retailers already control everything that actually gets someone to check out. Selection, pricing, delivery speed, and the kind of trust that takes years to build.
This isn’t a debate about which AI model is more advanced. It’s a conversation about structural advantage — and who already has it.
Here’s our take on what this means for brands and sellers.
AI Can Recommend. Retailers Can Convert.
Third-party AI tools are good at one thing: surfacing options. But when it comes to actually closing a sale, they’re missing most of the infrastructure that makes that happen. They don’t have real-time inventory data. Their pricing logic isn’t always verified. They can’t access your order history or behavioral patterns, and they have no fulfillment layer to stand behind.
Retailers have all of that already built in.
Amazon doesn’t need to estimate when your package will arrive — it controls that answer. It doesn’t need to guess whether a product is in stock — it knows. That kind of integration is worth more than a smarter model when the goal is getting someone to actually complete a purchase.
Rufus: The Data Behind the Thesis
Amazon’s own numbers back this up.
In 2025, nearly 300 million customers used Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant. Shoppers who engaged with Rufus were around 60% more likely to complete a purchase compared to those who didn’t. Over the 2025 holiday season, AI-driven traffic to retailers jumped close to 700%.
That traffic didn’t stay in external chatbots. It ended up inside retailer ecosystems.
The pattern is consistent across the data. People browse widely, they use AI to explore and compare, but when they’re ready to buy, they go back to the platform where their account already lives, where their payment details are saved, and where they’ve bought before without issues.
AI Hype vs. What Actually Drives a Sale
A lot of the conversation in the market right now is about which AI system is the smartest. That’s the wrong question for commerce.
Intelligence alone doesn’t close a sale. What closes a sale is a saved credit card, a reliable returns process, a next-day delivery promise, and a history of the customer trusting that the product will show up as described.
None of that can be copied overnight by an external AI agent. It took Amazon years of infrastructure investment, logistics buildout, and consistent customer experience to get there. An AI interface sitting outside that ecosystem starts from zero on all of those dimensions.
Amazon isn’t winning this race because its AI is better. It’s winning because its AI sits on top of something that already works.
The Real Advantage Is the Relationship, Not the Model
The most durable competitive advantage in AI commerce isn’t technological — it’s relational.
Retailers already hold customer accounts, purchase histories, behavioral data, loyalty programs, and fulfillment networks. When you layer AI on top of a relationship that already exists and a system the customer already trusts, you get leverage. When you layer AI on top of a blank interface with no history, you get friction.
This isn’t a new pattern. Distribution and embedded relationships have consistently outperformed standalone technological breakthroughs throughout commerce history. The best technology doesn’t always win. The most embedded technology usually does.
What This Actually Means for Sellers and Brands
If Jassy’s thesis plays out — and the data suggests it already is — a few things follow from that for anyone selling on Amazon.
AI optimization inside Amazon’s ecosystem is going to intensify. The tools Amazon builds natively will have more influence over discovery and conversion than anything happening outside the platform. Clean listings, structured data, and strong content are going to matter more as AI-assisted search becomes the default way people shop, not the exception.
And brands that have been leaning heavily on external traffic funnels without strengthening their in-platform presence are going to feel that gap. If AI embeds itself deeper into how Amazon surfaces and recommends products, the brands that are already well-optimized inside that ecosystem will pull further ahead.
The Question That Actually Matters
In an AI-driven commerce environment, what wins — the smartest standalone technology, or the strongest existing customer relationship?
Amazon is betting on relationship, infrastructure plus AI integration together. Given that they’re starting with 300 million active customers, years of behavioral data, and a fulfillment network most companies will never replicate, that’s not a bold bet. It’s a logical one.
For sellers, the direction is straightforward: optimize for the platform where the transaction happens — not just for where the conversation starts.
If you want more analysis on how AI is shifting Amazon’s performance, advertising systems, and marketplace dynamics, follow the ANavigator blog.
If you need help with PPC, DSP, analytics, or a long-term growth strategy, reach out to the ANavigator team at info@anavigator.co
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— The ANavigator Team
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