Amazon Business has begun rolling out new artificial intelligence–powered procurement tools designed to accelerate purchasing while tightening compliance for corporate and government buyers.
The capabilities, first announced Nov. 12 at the Amazon Business Reshape conference, are now active for select U.S. users. Doug Gray, vice president of technology for Amazon Business, said the focus is on helping procurement teams move faster without sacrificing oversight.
“Businesses need AI’s speed without losing control,” Gray said in the keynote. “We use AI to keep you in the driver’s seat.”
AI Features Moving into Live Use
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Amazon Business Assistant — A generative AI guide built on Amazon Bedrock models that recommends catalog setup changes and more efficient buying patterns based on real-time spend data.
• Spend Anomaly Monitoring — Now available to Business Prime Enterprise and Unlimited accounts to flag unusual or non-compliant transactions.
• Additional updates enhance checkout-to-delivery workflows, including deferred delivery scheduling for large shipments, expanded palletized drop-offs, one-time password verification for higher-value orders, and unified delivery management across multiple locations.
• Pay-by-invoice controls and group-level oversight tools are now available in nine countries.
Savings Insights — an AI feature that analyzes spending and recommends cost-saving actions — is planned for U.S. availability in late 2025.
Implications for Distributors
Analysts say the rollout could accelerate a shift in how organizations source supplies:
- AI is influencing SKU choice earlier, potentially redirecting purchases away from traditional distributors.
- Compliance expectations are rising, pushing distributors to match enterprise-grade spend governance.
- Operational convenience becomes a battleground as Amazon embeds logistics capabilities such as scheduling and secure delivery.
- Data-driven procurement strengthens buyers’ leverage in pricing and contracting negotiations.
As organizations standardize digital buying and require greater accountability, automation is becoming a core procurement capability — not a pilot program.
“These innovations are part of our broader vision to help organizations buy smarter and operate more efficiently,” Gray said.
For distributors, the message is clear: purchasing decisions are speeding up, and AI is increasingly deciding where the expenditure goes.
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