Amazon Prime Video’s New Look Hopes to End Decision Paralysis

How much time do you spend looking for something to stream when you’re ready to settle in for the night? It can take a long while if you’re anything like my boyfriend and me and our discordant tastes. A girl can only take so many schlocky horror and B-grade sci-fi movies! Amazon aims to reduce search time by giving Prime Video subscribers a nice quality-of-life update. The company started rolling out a global update today that will make finding the content you pay for much more effortless. The new changes will lean on generative AI for more personalized search results.

The new changes will also make parsing through the content much easier by rolling out a new “Prime” tab. As the name suggests, this tab will curate all the content that comes with your Prime Video subscription instead of a mix of rentals and channels you may not have access to. And speaking of other channels, tabs for services such as Max, Paramount Plus, Crunchyroll, and other paid subscription services will also be available. You can access over 100 add-on subscriptions under the “Subscriptions” tab. In addition to recommendations, you’ll also get offers for deals from third-party services.

Going back to those generative AI recommendations, you’ll find “Made for You” sections under the “Movies” and “TV Shows” tabs that will bypass the content flotsam in favor of personalized recommendations. Prime Video’s AI is powered by Amazon Bedrock, “a fully managed AWS service for building and scaling generative AI applications with foundational models to generate personalized recommendations for customers.” Large Language Models also program synopses into quick, scannable text so you don’t spend too much time deciding whether to play or pass.

Finally, Amazon is adding a few cosmetic updates, such as smoother animations, page transitions, and zoom effects. If you’re in the “Live TV” section, your recommended channels will start playing automatically. I’m eager to see if this can cut some time off the “What do you want to watch?” debate in my house. Hopefully, I can get more anime and true crime into the mix.