Optimized Prime: How AI And Anticipation Power Amazon's 1-Hour Deliveries

"By the time someone clicks "buy" on Amazon, Jenny Freshwater's team has probably expected it."

"Freshwater is a software director in Amazon's Supply Chain Optimization Technologies group. Her team forecasts demand for everything sold by Amazon worldwide."

"This task, into which NPR got exclusive insight, underlies the entire Amazon retail operation. And it's central to Amazon's wooing of some 100 million people who shell out up to $119 a year for a Prime subscription, which guarantees two-day shipping."

"Inside Amazon, corporate executives like to evoke magic when they talk about fast delivery. For months, they used the code name Houdini before launching their fastest service, Prime Now, which delivers household basics within hours."

"But a lot of it is thanks to artificial intelligence. With AI, computers analyze reams of data, making decisions and performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. AI is key to Amazon's retail forecasting on steroids and its push to shave off minutes and seconds in the rush to prepare, pack and deliver."