Amazon this week announced new artificial intelligence features in Seller Central that allow sellers to explore performance data through a visual workspace rather than static reports.
Described as a “dynamic canvas experience,” this feature signals a broader shift in reporting software toward so-called conversational business intelligence.
canvas experience
To use this Canvas experience, sellers can, for example, ask the Amazon AI Assistant how an advertising campaign affected a product’s sales, or request a comparison of sales between two time periods.
The AI assistant generates charts and graphs that display the requested metrics. The system will be a text or chat-based interface to Amazon’s vast marketplace dataset.
Sellers can place these visual elements within a custom workspace. Amazon describes this tool as a way to experiment with your data, rather than just viewing reports.
Amazon’s AI-driven “canvas experience” signals a larger trend toward conversational business intelligence tools. Click on the image to enlarge.
workspace trends
Given the rapid improvements and applications of AI, Seller Central’s Canvas experience is part of a broader trend in business analytics software.
This suggests a future where people rely less on spreadsheets, manual reports, and even business intelligence tools, and more on AI systems to interpret signals, provide information, and make decisions.
Performance analysis moves from someone looking at data and creating a report to a conversation.
Tools like Seller Central AI Canvas suggest that future e-commerce analytics may look more like an ongoing conversation than a traditional dashboard. the seller asks. The system reveals insights. A decision follows.
There is evidence of this trend beyond Amazon.
For example, Shopify’s Winter ’26 platform update introduced more than 150 AI-related enhancements, including updates to Sidekick, our AI assistant. Improved tools, including Sidekick Pulse, help merchants analyze data, generate tasks, and automate workflows. Sellers can ask Sidekick about sales trends, inventory, and marketing performance, just like Amazon Assistant.
conversational BI
This concept of asking AI questions about business data isn’t necessarily new. Variations of conversational business intelligence are already appearing in analytics software.
Tools like Power BI, Looker, and Qlik allow users to ask questions in natural language. “Why did my conversion rate drop yesterday?” — and receive a chart and summary.
Impact on merchants
Online sellers already have access to more data than can realistically be analyzed. Only Amazon Seller Central offers reports covering traffic, conversions, ad performance, and inventory levels. Understanding how these metrics interact often requires exporting data, building spreadsheets, or using external analysis tools.
Conversational business intelligence has the potential to reduce that complexity.
Instead of searching for reports, sellers can ask about performance and receive charts, summaries, and explanations within seconds. As these tools mature, they are likely to change the way merchants interact with e-commerce data in different ways.
- Lowering barriers to analysis. Businesses will now have access to insights that once required advanced reporting tools and technical expertise.
- Faster decision making. Sellers can receive performance data in near real-time.
- Further experiments. AI-driven workspaces facilitate broader testing and analysis.
- Improved visibility across the system. Over time, these tools are likely to connect disparate sources of e-commerce data, such as advertising platforms, analytics services, and marketplaces.
Still, conversational business analytics is unlikely to completely replace traditional reporting. Merchants continue to need reliable data models, clear metrics, and an understanding of how their business operates.
decision maker
As AI technology improves, systems may go beyond just answering queries to proactively recommending or automatically taking actions.
Within parameters, the AI assistant could increase spending on profitable ad campaigns, pause groups of poorly performing keywords, or alert sellers that inventory is running low. All of this is done on its own.
Conversational business intelligence may therefore herald a more automated environment, where software not only explains data but also helps run a business.
At this point, tools like Amazon’s Seller Central Canvas may only answer questions. But as AI evolves within e-commerce platforms, the distance between insight and action should rapidly close.
