Amazon opens its seller tools to outside AI agents, starting with Claude in beta

Amazon announced new AI tools for its independent sellers at its Accelerate conference in Seattle on Wednesday, led by a plugin that lets merchants run their Amazon business from Anthropic's Claude or Amazon's own Quick assistant. Sellers can check inventory, adjust prices and update listings without opening Seller Central.

Seller tools move outside Seller Central

The Amazon Selling Partner plugin is the first time the company has officially connected its seller tools to outside AI platforms. It launches in Amazon Quick and in beta with Claude; Amazon says more integrations will follow. "Our vision was that they would never have to log into Seller Central," said Mary Beth Westmoreland, Amazon's vice president of Worldwide Selling Partner Experience. "We would just bring it to them where they work."

Amazon says connecting Claude takes about 60 seconds and no coding. The plugin pulls a seller's listings, inventory levels, sales analytics and performance metrics into the outside assistant, which can then act on the account the way Seller Assistant does inside Seller Central. Sellers choose which data the plugin can reach and approve each action before it is carried out. The plugin is in beta in Amazon's U.S. stores, with international expansion to follow.

Seller Assistant gets memory and background workflows

Seller Assistant, launched in 2023 and powered by Anthropic's Claude models on Amazon Bedrock, now reaches more than 90% of selling partners worldwide; sellers accept its recommendations more than 90% of the time. It gains persistent memory of pricing patterns, inventory cycles and growth goals, which carries over into Quick and Claude. New workflows monitor the business in the background even when the seller is logged out, while a canvas turns live data into a visual workspace.

Why it matters

Independent sellers account for more than 60% of units sold on Amazon worldwide, and the fees they pay brought in $46.8 billion in the second quarter, more than AWS. Those fees are central to the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case, set for trial in March 2027; Amazon denies the allegations. The launch also comes days after Amazon blocked Meta's Muse, an AI agent that shops for consumers.

Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic, and is offering primary selling account holders a free 12-month Amazon Quick Plus subscription through Dec. 31, 2026.