eBay Expands AI Responses For Messaging, Promising Faster Answers To Shipping & Item Detail Questions
eBay is expanding AI powered responses for messaging, promising to streamline seller answers to shipping and item detail questions.
The feature first launched in Australia in August but is now rolling out sitewide ahead of the eBay Open 2025 seller conference.
Liz Morton
Sellers report seeing a pop up "nudging" them to opt in to messaging with eBay.AI and as with the initial rollout in Australia, it's currently limited only to topics regarding shipping or item details,
Messaging is faster with eBay.ai
Intelligent Assistance
Provides suggested replies to buyer questions using information solely from your listings and order detailsCurated Topics
Only available for topics relating to item details and shipping, and avoids questions about pricing or offersComplete Control
Suggested replies are not visible to buyers, allowing you to review and edit them before sending
While opting is still voluntarily, it's interesting to note that eBay does not provide "no" as a possible answer to the question - the only way to close the pop up is to select either "enable eBay.AI" or "maybe later."
Once enabled, it can be turned on or off with a toggle in the Messages menu and clicking the i in the circle provide more information, including a disclaimer about using third-party generative AI models for the service - though it does not name which models are being used.
eBay.ai is here to assist you with quick, helpful, and friendly responses. If you have enabled this feature, eBay.ai may suggest a response gathering details from the item listing or order details.
eBay.ai will not answer all questions. It is only available when it can deliver relevant, accurate answers, and avoids questions about pricing or offers. You will have the ability to review and edit responses before they are sent to buyers.
eBay.ai is experimental and may suggest inaccurate or inappropriate responses. We’re using third-party generative AI models to provide this service. Authorized eBay personnel may access the messages you provide to resolve incidents, recover data, moderate content, and respond to feedback.
Please don’t share information you don’t want them to access. Please check our Privacy Notice.
While the disclaimer doesn't explicitly state that eBay may use the content of messages for AI training, changes made in eBay's most recent Privacy Policy update have likely opted users into AI training by default - a practice that has already raised regulatory eyebrows in Germany.
Liz Morton
Users who do not want to use AI in messages and want to opt out of having their data used for AI training can update there preferences here:
So far in my testing, the AI does fairly well at accurately finding information from the listing and shipping details to answer questions where the information is already explicitly stated in the listing.
That may seem a little silly and redundant, but could help address the common seller pain point of dealing with buyers who haven't bothered reading the actual item description (or who had it hidden from view by eBay).
For example, the AI correctly answered the volume in oz of the advertised product (which is stated in the title, item specifics, and description) and also correctly provided the same shipping cost and estimated delivery time to a particular zip code that the buyer would have seen if they had looked at the shipping details on the listing.
The suggested AI generated response shows only to the seller and they can choose to either dismiss it or "edit & send", which then copies the answer into the text box where it can be edited, then sent with a click of the blue button.
Interestingly, while the seller view clearly identifies the text as being generated with eBay.AI, the buyer view does not contain any such disclaimers.
That indicates eBay believes that since the seller is provided the opportunity to edit the text, the seller assumes all responsibility for what it says and thus there is no responsibility on eBay's part to disclose the use of AI in the process.
But that doesn't mean sellers shouldn't disclose that use themselves and it definitely does mean that should any of the information provided in the AI answer be incorrect, it will be the seller who is deemed at fault in any disputes or claims.
Similarly, eBay has also been increasingly using AI to provide item detail summaries both offsite as part of their Facebook Marketplace partnership and onsite in the app and web experiences, raising seller concerns about liability for LLM hallucinations on Item Not As Described claims.
Liz Morton
The AI also did fairly well making connections and inferences from the description - for example while the description never uses the word "boat", it correctly answers this question by understanding that since the description says it is for marine applications and safe on fiberglass and gelcoat, it would be suitable for use on a boat.
And it also caught this attempt to throw a curveball, identifying that the item in question would not have any memory capacity.
Bottom line - this tool may save a little bit of time when answering easy questions about information that is already contained in the listing, but that use case is limited and the time savings may be limited as well since the seller will still need to carefully review and possibly edit the answer before hitting "send."
Do you trust eBay.AI to automatically respond to your buyers' messages? Let us know in the comments below!
