From A9 to COSMO: How Amazon’s AI Search Changes SEO, PPC, and Ranking for Sellers

Amazon COSMO

Amazon just rewrote the rules of e-commerce search.

For years, as a brand or seller, you might’ve obsessed over keywords that are placed in the Amazon listing. 

You learned how Amazon’s A9 and A10 algorithms worked, tested title variations, tweaked bullet points, and spent hours running ads. 

That keyword-first playbook worked, until now.

Today, that approach is outdated.

Amazon has introduced COSMO, a large language model designed to power the new search experience. Alongside it, you have Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant built right into the app.

This duo is reshaping how millions of customers search, discover, and buy products every single day.

And if your Amazon ranking strategy is still only about keywords, you’re already falling behind.

It’s no longer about what keywords you place on the page. It’s about intent.

In this article, let’s break down what Amazon COSMO is about, how it shifted visibility from A9, and how sellers should plan their listing strategy and visibility to grow sales. 

What is COSMO?

COSMO stands for Common Sense Knowledge Generation. 

How does it work?

Instead of simply matching keywords, COSMO builds a knowledge graph. That means it understands:

• The context behind a search.

• The shopper’s intent.

• The relationships between products, attributes, and use-cases.

For example, when a shopper searches for “organic cotton t-shirt”, COSMO doesn’t just look for listings that contain the words organic or t-shirt. Instead, it interprets the intent behind the search:

• Eco-friendly and sustainable.

• Soft and breathable.

• Everyday wear with comfort in mind.

That’s why Rufus matters too. Rufus is like the face of this AI, Amazon’s conversational assistant built directly into the app, where a shopper can ask questions.

Imagine a shopper asking:

- What’s the best laptop for video editing under $1,000?

- Which protein powder is good for beginners?

Rufus won’t just use keywords. It will pull product recommendations, comparisons, and attributes directly from the COSMO knowledge graph.

Together, COSMO is the brain. Rufus is the voice. 

From Amazon A9/A10 to COSMO

For those of you new to selling on Amazon, let’s understand the context better in relation to Amazon A9.

For years, success on Amazon meant figuring out A9 and A10 SEO algorithms that help products appear in search results. Those algorithms ranked your product if:

• Your keywords matched the search.

• Your click-through rate (CTR) stayed strong.

• Your conversion rate (CVR) or sales held steady.

It was mechanical. Sellers could game the system with keywords, coupon hacks, aggressive bidding, and good images.

But COSMO changes that.

Now, search isn’t about keywords on the product listing. It’s about why a customer is searching — and whether your product truly fits that intent.

If a shopper searches “wireless earbuds”, COSMO looks beyond the literal keyword. Maybe what they really want is noise-cancelling earbuds for office calls. If your listing doesn’t communicate that benefit, your product won’t even surface.

That’s the new reality:

• Keywords alone won’t save you.

• Irrelevant ads won’t win impressions.

• Generic listings will get filtered out.

Amazon’s vision is clear: a shopping experience powered by intelligence, not keyword hacks.

How to Rank Products for COSMO: Amazon Seller Tips

If Amazon's COSMO understands intent, then your job is to make sure your listings speak the same language. Here’s how:

1. Optimize for intent, not just keywords

Don’t stop at keyword coverage. Go deeper. Show how your product actually fits what the shopper wants. Use structured attributes, real use-cases, and tangible benefits.

• Instead of: “cotton t-shirt.”

• Try: “organic cotton t-shirt — soft, breathable, and perfect for everyday wear.”

This isn’t about stuffing keywords. It’s about making your listing obvious to COSMO.

2. Strengthen organic + ads together

Your Amazon strategy is like a flywheel. Strong product listings make your ads perform better. Well-aligned ads drive traffic that boosts your organic ranking. Together, they keep the sales engine spinning.

When both are aligned, you build unstoppable sales momentum for your products.

3. Answer shopper questions in your listing

Shoppers search with intent, not just words. Your listing should anticipate those questions:

• Is it durable?

• Who is it best for?

• Why is it different from the competition?

The more directly you answer, the more likely COSMO will recommend your product.

4. Focus on clarity and customer context

Avoid generic or vague titles and descriptions. COSMO is trained to understand meaning — if your listing is vague, it gets ignored. Clear, specific, customer-focused content wins visibility.

Amazon PPC Strategies in the COSMO Era

COSMO doesn’t separate ads from organic results; they feed the same AI-driven knowledge graph. That means your PPC campaigns can’t be isolated anymore.

Misaligned ads = wasted spend. If your ads don’t match shopper intent, you’ll burn budget without impressions or sales.

Weak listings = poor ad delivery. Even if you bid high, a weak listing means COSMO won’t consider your product relevant enough.

The solution?

Build intent-driven campaigns, not keyword-oriented. That means focusing on customer needs, aligning ad copy with organic listings, and optimizing for the same use-cases COSMO prioritizes.

Doing it Right With the SellerMate Way

At SellerMate.AI, we’ve designed our platform to help your ads stay aligned with the changing Amazon landscape: 

For instance:

Intent-rich term search term harvesting → Our AI pulls the best-performing search terms from auto campaigns and recommends how to scale them into manual campaigns. No guesswork.

Amazon PPC dayparting and automation → Control budget and bids by shopper behavior, so you stop wasting money in low-conversion hours.

SellerBot insights → Get instant answers from your campaign data, instead of spending hours in spreadsheets.

Wrapping it up!

Keep in mind that COSMO and Rufus aren’t just updates. They change how Amazon search works.

If you don’t adapt, you’ll lose visibility. You’ll spend more on ads and still miss the traffic and sales that matter.

With SellerMate, you don’t just keep up, you stay ahead. To know more, book a demo with our team.