Amazon Takes on Netflix With New AI Recaps

Amazon.Com Inc AMZN Amazon Prime Video is unveiling an X-Ray Recaps feature to help users stay updated on their favorite shows, even after long breaks between episodes.

Instead of rewinding or searching for plot summaries, viewers can now access spoiler-free, AI-generated recaps to refresh their memory quickly.

X-Ray Recaps uses generative AI to create concise summaries tailored to a user’s specific point in an episode or season.

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Whether viewers need a refresher on critical events halfway through a season or have missed crucial plot points, X-Ray Recaps provides clear, relevant context in short text segments.

This feature extends Prime Video’s existing X-Ray tool, which already offers cast, soundtrack, and trivia information to enhance the viewing experience.

Amazon’s new feature leverages Amazon Bedrock, an AWS service for creating and scaling AI applications.

The feature combines Bedrock’s AI and customized models trained on Amazon SageMaker to analyze video segments and subtitles to generate comprehensive yet spoiler-free summaries.

Guardrails ensure that the recaps avoid spoilers and keep the content concise, making it ideal for audiences eager to return to their shows without missing key developments.

Prime Video users can access X-Ray Recaps directly from the detail page or during playback within the X-Ray experience. Once activated, options include summaries for the current episode, the season, or the previous season.

The feature is currently in beta and is available to U.S. customers on Fire TV, with broader device support expected by the end of the year.

At launch, X-Ray Recaps will cover the Amazon MGM Studios Original series.

The move marks Amazon’s efforts to stay relevant versus streaming giants like Netflix Inc NFLX. Amazon Prime Video started offering lower ad prices than Netflix and other streaming rivals as it competes for advertiser interest.

Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik noted Amazon as a substantial investment, even with upcoming infrastructure spending increases. Shmulik sees Amazon’s core operations, AWS revenue, and Prime Video investments as key drivers, especially before the holiday season.

He emphasized that Amazon’s spending tends to yield solid returns, setting up for strong free cash flow in 2025.

Analysts view Amazon Prime Video as a strategic growth driver within Amazon’s expanding advertising segment. The recent introduction of Prime Video’s ad-supported tier will likely boost Amazon’s advertising revenue, with analysts like Truist’s Youssef Squali projecting significant contributions by fiscal 2025. BMO Capital’s Brian Pitz also noted that sports content and new AI-driven bidding tools could further enhance ad revenue potential.

Price Action: AMZN stock traded higher by 0.13% to $196.03 premarket at the last check on Tuesday.

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