Small businesses that regularly purchase supplies through Amazon Business may soon spend less time tracking orders, following up on approvals, and reviewing purchasing data. Amazon Business has introduced new AI-powered capabilities for Amazon Business Assistant, allowing customers to manage more of their procurement activities through natural-language conversations.

Announced at Amazon Business Reshape 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee, the enhancements are available to all U.S. Amazon Business customers directly within their account pages.

The updated assistant uses customer-specific information, including previous orders, purchasing activity, employee permissions, and organizational policies, to provide personalized answers and recommend actions. The changes expand the assistant beyond general purchasing support into account-specific procurement assistance.

New AI Features Simplify Everyday Purchasing Tasks

The enhanced Amazon Business Assistant introduces several capabilities designed to reduce the administrative work associated with business purchasing.

Key features include:

• Order tracking: Customers can check shipment details, expected delivery dates, and outstanding approvals through conversational questions.
• Approval management: Employees can identify who is reviewing an order and determine when approval notifications were sent.
• Savings recommendations: The assistant analyzes purchasing information to identify potential cost-saving opportunities.
• Payment allocation: Customers can address payment allocation tasks within the same conversation.
• Spending analysis: Users can ask questions about purchasing trends and receive answers based on their organization’s actual transaction data.

For small businesses, these capabilities could help reduce the time employees spend navigating reports and account pages to locate purchasing information.

Consider a business operating several locations that regularly orders cleaning products, office supplies, and breakroom essentials. A manager could ask the assistant about outstanding orders, identify delayed shipments, and determine whether an employee’s approval is holding up a purchase.

The assistant also maintains conversational context, allowing users to ask follow-up questions without restarting their search.

“Every hour a procurement team spends chasing approvals or manually reconciling invoices is an hour they’re not spending on the work that moves their organization forward,” said Shelley Salomon, worldwide vice president of Amazon Business. “Amazon Business Assistant now steps in to handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that slow teams down, so they can focus on finding the right products, managing supplier relationships, and driving real value across their business.”

Businesses Can Analyze Purchasing Data Without Building Reports

One of the more significant additions is the assistant’s ability to answer questions about spending patterns using an organization’s purchasing history.

Instead of manually opening reports, selecting filters, and reviewing spreadsheets, business owners and employees can request specific information in everyday language.

For example, a business owner could ask how much the company spent on IT supplies last month or which purchasing categories accounted for the largest expenses.

According to Amazon Business, the assistant can access more than 60 reporting fields and up to two years of account history. Available information covers orders, shipments, payments, refunds, savings, products, and sellers.

Users can also explore more detailed questions, including how much purchasing volume went to small or diverse sellers or which restricted products employees purchased.

This functionality could be particularly useful for smaller companies without dedicated procurement analysts. Business owners, office managers, and finance employees may be able to identify spending trends and investigate unusual purchases without specialized reporting knowledge.

However, the analysis relies on information available within the company’s Amazon Business account. Businesses purchasing products through multiple suppliers would still need to consider transactions outside Amazon when evaluating their overall expenses.

Existing Purchasing Controls Remain in Place

Amazon Business says the enhanced assistant operates within each organization’s existing purchasing policies, approval workflows, and spending limits.

The AI assistant does not bypass required approvals. Purchases that ordinarily require authorization must still follow established approval procedures, and employees retain final responsibility for approving actions.

Access to financial information also depends on existing employee permissions. A purchasing employee cannot automatically access information reserved for an administrator or finance manager simply by asking the assistant.

These safeguards matter for small businesses that delegate purchasing responsibilities while maintaining centralized control over expenses.

Still, businesses adopting the enhanced assistant should review their existing account permissions and purchasing policies. AI-powered recommendations depend on the underlying account information, and employees should verify important financial details before acting on them.

Amazon has not provided specific performance benchmarks demonstrating how much time or money the enhancements could save individual businesses. Actual benefits will likely depend on purchasing volume, account configuration, and how frequently employees use the features.

The enhanced Amazon Business Assistant is available to U.S. Amazon Business customers through their existing accounts. Users can begin by asking questions about orders, approvals, spending patterns, or purchasing policies. They can also provide feedback through the assistant’s thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings or their Amazon Business account representative.

For small businesses looking to streamline purchasing operations, the enhancements offer another way to access procurement information without navigating multiple reports. The practical value will depend on whether the assistant delivers accurate answers, identifies meaningful savings, and reduces the administrative time associated with everyday business purchases.

This article, “Amazon Business Expands AI Assistant for Orders and Spending” was first published on Small Business Trends