Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant Rufus arrives in the UK

The new chatbot Rufus, which is initially being launched to a subset of customers on the online giant’s mobile app, has been trained on Amazon’s product catalogue and information from across the web, enabling it to answer any shopping queries users have.

Rufus can help shoppers with broad research questions and comparisons between different types of products and even specific questions about individual items, The Evening Standard reported.

Once available, the chatbot will appear as an icon in the bottom corner of the screen within the Amazon Shopping app, with users able to expand the chat box to see answers to their questions, as well as tap on suggested questions and ask follow-up questions.

“Amazon has been using AI very expansively for over 25 years to improve customer experiences,” Amazon said in a blog post about the launch.

“The personalised recommendations customers get when they shop on Amazon’s store, the pick-paths in our fulfilment centres, and the conversational capabilities of Alexa are just a few examples of experiences fuelled by AI.

“And we believe generative AI is going to change virtually all customer experiences that we know.

“We are excited about the potential of generative AI and will continue testing new features to make it even easier to find and discover, research and buy products on Amazon’s store.

“We look forward to progressively rolling Rufus out to additional customers in the coming weeks.”

The business confirmed users will be able to return to traditional search results at any time by swiping down to close the chat box.

Retail Gazette