Prime Video’s home screen has looked the same for years, with tiles lined up that rarely match what you actually want to watch. Amazon is betting that AI can change this, and Jeff Bezos is personally driving the effort.
According to Reuters, Bezos has told Prime Video head Mike Hopkins to overhaul the streaming service to put AI at the forefront. The project has an internal code name of Lighthouse and has already restructured the way apps work.
What will change with Prime Video?
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
The redesign will rebuild the homepage around AI-generated recommendations, rather than the fixed grid that all subscribers currently see. One version Prime Video executives discussed includes tiles built around prompts such as “1980s action movie” and “Christmas rom-com” shaped by users’ own viewing habits.
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Amazon is also considering whether to incorporate the Alexa voice assistant into search. This allows you to just say how you feel instead of typing your mood. Traditional search also no longer works, leaving space at the top of the screen for Amazon-exclusive NFL games, Thursday Night Football, and other highlights.
What’s making Bezos suddenly push toward AI?
The Lighthouse project didn’t start as a regular product update. Reuters reports that the project grew out of a tense meeting last fall, during which Bezos told Prime Video executives that the original plan didn’t lean enough into AI and personalization. The team scrapped that version entirely and rebuilt it from scratch under global design lead Kam Keshmiri. Since then, Bezos has remained personally involved, but it’s interesting to consider how far removed he is from Amazon’s day-to-day operations in 2021 and beyond.
There’s also a bigger story behind Prime Video’s redesign. Amazon has committed nearly $200 billion in capital spending this year, mostly related to AI, on top of the $23 billion initial investment split in OpenAI and Anthropic.
Lighthouse is part of Amazon’s plan to strengthen its AI reputation as competitors continue to move rapidly. Prime Video currently accounts for just 4.2% of U.S. TV viewing, lagging behind YouTube, Netflix and Disney+, but Amazon has good reason to get this right. But Amazon’s other major AI project is an overhaul of Alexa, with mixed results so far and the division reportedly still losing money.
Will increased AI actually benefit viewers?
Prime Video, like most popular streaming platforms, allows studios to pay for prime placement on the home screen. If personalized rankings start replacing some of the paid real estate, the shows you see first may depend on your favorite shows, not who paid the most. That would mark a real shift towards more honest recommendations that will benefit viewers.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
However, there is still some skepticism in this conversation. Netflix already has similar AI fixes for scroll fatigue issues, but many viewers still complain that they can’t find anything worth binge-watching on the platform. It’s also unclear whether Prime Video’s redesigned AI-first approach will eliminate paid placements entirely or simply reposition them into the algorithm itself, which won’t benefit viewers much.
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For now, Amazon is testing an early version with a small group of users, and feedback could reshape the final layout. You’ll only know once you see it on screen whether Lighthouse actually makes scrolling less tiring or just dresses it up differently.
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