Amazon Prime Video’s new X-Ray Recaps feature uses GenAI to help viewers catch up on key plot points of their favourite shows without rewinding or risking spoilers.

Amazon introduced a new generative AI (GenAI) enabled function for its Prime Video service that solves the problem of recollecting the events of a previous TV show season or rewinding the episode to find out what you missed while distracted.

Called X-Ray Recaps, the new feature allows customers to spend more time streaming their favourite TV shows and less time rewinding or watching the show all over again. Now, generative AI can help you keep up with the show. It creates brief, simple, spoiler-free summaries of full seasons, single episodes, and even short time frames personalised to the exact minute of where you are watching. To refresh the previous events of the show, one can access AI-provided details at any point in their viewing experience.

The AI-driven capability builds upon Prime Video’s existing X-Ray features, which inform viewers about show trivia, cast, soundtrack, production details, and more.?

Powered by Amazon Bedrock, X-Ray Recaps combines foundational models and custom AI trained on Amazon SageMaker to create detailed episode summaries by analysing video segments, subtitles, and dialogue. It applies guardrails to ensure recaps are spoiler-free and concise and highlights key show events, places, and conversations.

X-Ray Recaps is available on Fire TV in the U.S. and will expand to more devices later this year. Eligible viewers can access X-Ray Recaps anytime from the Prime Video detail page or during playback in the X-Ray menu. Available summary options include recaps for the current episode, the season so far, or the previous season.

The feature is still in beta testing mode, so it applies to a limited number of shows. At launch, customers can use X-Ray Recaps on Amazon MGM Studios Original series.

AI is one of the cornerstones for customer experience improvements made by Amazon lately. Earlier this year, Amazon launched a new AI-enhanced search for its Fire TV service that enables viewers to find personalised TV shows and movie recommendations using natural language. Now, its customers can use complex or nuanced language to ask for media recommendations based on topic, genre, plot, character, actor, and even movie quotes.