A project that Jeff Bezos personally leads is likely to be noticed by the industry. The founder and executive chairman of Amazon is said to be focusing on the streaming service Prime Video, and looking to redesign it completely to include artificial intelligence at its core. This will not just be a cosmetic update—the fact that the company is investing in AI here suggests they believe it has the power to change the way more than 200 million subscribers are finding and consuming content, and it’s going to help Amazon’s reputation in an industry where it has sometimes been less than perfect when it comes to keeping up with its most lofty competitors.
The project, code-named Lighthouse, came out of a “contentious” presentation last fall to Bezos, sources said. Four sources familiar with the situation tell me that Prime Video boss Mike Hopkins had been preparing a typical update on the future direction of the service. However, Bezos was said to be unhappy with how the plans didn’t adequately demonstrate Amazon’s artificial intelligence and personalization. His answer led executives to abandon their plan altogether and take what would come to be known as Lighthouse.
It’s remarkable to see this degree of founder participation, considering the fact that Bezos recently stepped down from the role of CEO at Amazon in 2021. Since then, he has split his time between the Washington Post, his spaceflight company Blue Origin, and his AI venture Prometheus, which is estimated to be worth approximately $41 billion. However, the Prime Video is very much heart and soul, and he has been getting occasional snippets about the Lighthouse overhaul, and how much is on the line.
The game stakes are not limited to more “good” movie suggestions. Amazon has spent an incredible $200 billion on capital expenditures so far this year, mainly for AI development, and initially $23 billion on OpenAI and Anthropic, which can be as high as $40 billion more. With rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic racing ahead with their own strides in AI, Lighthouse stands as a pivotal initiative in Amazon’s broader strategy to raise its profile in the field. The other AI projects — including the multiyear transition of Alexa to offer a more conversational voice, which has so far proven to be a mixed bag — have seen mixed results and the unit continues to hemorrhage cash, sources with knowledge of the situation have previously said.
The mere redesign is meant to suggest a wide-ranging evolution of the Prime Video experience. One of the main visions is to leverage AI for better film and TV predictions, gaining a more comprehensive understanding of consumer preferences and reacting to audio-based commands. As part of the project, Prime Video is considering redesigning the main home page, but has not finalized the feature. A suggestion being floated is to have AI-generated tiles that suggest topics to view, such as “action films from the 1980s” or “Christmas rom-coms”, according to three sources. A current version doesn’t have tiles that are overly text-heavy, another source said, meaning the design is still fluid.
The venerable search bar would stay, and there would be room at the top of the new screen to showcase videos of new releases or sporting events, like Thursday Night Football, a weekly National Football League game exclusive to Amazon. Amazon is already rolling out the rework on the redesign to a handful of users, and the changes might move based on what it gets back from those first test users, or some other financial or concerns.
In addition, as part of the Lighthouse project, it has discussed adding the Alexa voice assistant to the search feature of Prime Video. This would be a huge leap towards having a natural voice experience when streaming. In early 2025, Amazon debuted a revamped generative AI-powered version of Alexa, and in May 2026, rolled out its generative AI-powered version of Alexa to its main shopping site.Amazon launched a revamped generative AI-powered version of Alexa in early 2025, and then added Alexa to its primary shopping site in May 2026, with a clear intent to embed AI features into all major products.
Kam Keshmiri, the global head of Prime Video design, was also present at the hugely controversial meeting with Bezos and is spearheading the Lighthouse redesign. His participation also indicates that Amazon is as committed as ever to taking the visual and user experience part of this overhaul seriously, as well.
But the business considerations of such a redo are big – and not entirely happy. Parks Associates entertainment researcher Michael Goodman weighed in on the fine line that Prime Video has to walk. “That real estate on the home screen is important to studios; it’s highly valued and it would be a big change to remove that valued real estate,” he remarked. Like other streaming services, Prime Video uses paid promotion from studios, and software algorithms, to determine the placement of content on the home screen. Any shift in that system by greater personalization may throw off existing revenue streams and relationships with content partners.
According to Nielsen data from April, Prime Video is the fourth leading streaming service in the U.S. after YouTube (13.4 percent), Netflix (7.8 percent) and Disney+ (5 percent). While Prime Video’s share of television viewing is relatively small at 4.2 percent, many of the platform’s members watch hours a week on the service and Amazon is looking to build on its personalization capabilities by leveraging artificial intelligence. More hours spent on the service can translate to greater value of the Prime subscription overall, through improved personalization.
Amazon’s best known brand and one offered to consumers in several markets where Amazon doesn’t have an e-commerce presence. In addition to free shipping, Prime Video is the most popular feature of the Prime subscription, and plays a vital role in the acquisition and retention of customers. In July 2024, the service unveiled a major update focused on making it clearer to users when content is free and when it offers extra costs (e.g. subscription to Paramount+ or movies and TV shows that require a rental fee). Amazon wants Prime Video to be the hub for users to pay for content and Lighthouse promises to do just that with its AI-driven personalization.
