How Amazon leaders use AI: Life hacks from top executives

“Rufus, I want to take our dog Arno kayaking in the Puget Sound.” I’ve been using Rufus, Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant, to shop recently. I talk to Rufus about Arno a lot. Rufus remembers his breed, his size, and his favorite food and treats. And when I told Rufus about our upcoming outing, it recommended a great life vest for him without hesitation. The personalized experience has really stood out to me—Rufus now provides more relevant and helpful answers and product search results based on a customer’s preferences and shopping patterns. And it’s getting better every day.

I’ve also been having a lot of fun using Rufus to look at the price history of products I’m exploring. It’s super simple. You can go to any product detail page and press the “price history” link. You’ll see the average daily price over the past 30 and 90 days. And this is where it gets fun: You can ask Rufus to alert you if the price drops, and even automatically buy it for you once it does. Arno goes through a lot of fetch toys and chew rings. I’ve got price alerts for each of these, so if they go on deal, Rufus will go ahead and load us up. I’m happy—and Arno is too.

My parents live across the country, but music helps us stay connected. My son and I used AI to surprise my dad with custom songs based on his interests. The app produced country and rock tracks (good ones!) and my dad was absolutely blown away. It’s a great family memory.

Outside of work, I serve on the board of Water.org and AI has become invaluable for meeting prep. I recently used it to summarize research and pull salient points from a long document I’d read, reminding me of the key questions I wanted to ask before our meeting began.

Reading is a big part of my day. To help me choose what to read next, I added all my past books, ratings, and notes into an AI tool. Some of my book reviews are detailed and the AI has identified patterns and extrapolated things I tend to not enjoy so the recommendations have been very aligned with what I like across a diverse set of genres—my yearly average book rating has even gone up as a result! When I’m ready for something new, I get a list that feels curated just for me. It removes the guesswork and helps me discover stories I might never have found on my own. Some of my favorite books from 2025 were found this way (e.g., “Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje) and 2026 is already off to a strong start with two 5-star reads so far.

In our house, with two busy professionals, three kids, and a dog… the family calendar can feel like its own full-time job. I started experimenting with AI as a simple way to bring order to it—not as anything fancy, just a lightweight “AI family operating system” that thinks through logistics and daily tasks much like a human chief of staff. I connect an AI assistant to our mix of calendars and apps—work, school, sports, piano lessons, Kumon, travel—and it turns everything into one clear weekly brief, providing daily updates, recommendations, and proactive multi-month views. It also suggests exercise windows, specific workouts, meal planning, and recipes based on the day.

Every Sunday it summarizes the week, flags conflicts before I ever see them, and then offers daily, small adjustments that help us avoid scrambling. It also includes smart reminders: snack duty, the right jersey colors, game gear, school assignments, when to leave based on traffic, and looks ahead to things like weather or a run of late nights.

I haven’t perfected it, but offloading that mental juggle means more space for the moments that matter. Honestly, it almost feels a little magical.

One of my favorite AI hacks right now is something I did just last weekend: sitting down with my son and writing code together. If you haven’t tried tools like Kiro yet, you should. There’s something incredibly inspiring about starting from zero and creating your own app or piece of software. It reminds me that AI isn’t just about consuming technology—it’s about building, learning, and exploring together.

Another recent favorite is Alexa+. I took a photo of my mother-in-law’s handwritten recipe for kibbeh—a very complicated Lebanese dish—and uploaded it to Alexa. Then I just started talking. Step by step, Alexa became my sous-chef in the kitchen. I did the same with my mom’s baklava recipe, and suddenly it wasn’t about following instructions—it turned into a conversation about substitutions, techniques, and timing. It’s practical AI, but it’s also deeply emotional. You’re instantly connected to the product because it brings family, memory, and tradition to life.

And then there’s Kindle’s “Story So Far.” I jump between books constantly, and this feature completely changed how I read. It catches you up exactly where you left off, pulling you right back into the story and the characters you care about.

My advice? AI should be useful and keep you present. Try one simple thing: take a photo of a family recipe and talk to Alexa about it, ask Kindle about a book you haven’t picked up in a while, or create something entirely new that inspires you.