Rufus, Amazon’s AI Shopping Companion, Rolls Out Nationwide

Amazon’s generative artificial intelligence-powered conversational shopping assistant, Rufus, is now available to all U.S. customers in the Amazon Shopping app.

Introduced in February, Rufus answers questions on various shopping needs and products, the company said in a Friday (July 12) press release.

“Since introducing Rufus, we’ve been thrilled to hear directly from customers how Rufus has helped them with broad-range and specific shopping questions, and everything in between,” Rajiv Mehta, vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, said in the release. “Customers have already asked Rufus tens of millions of questions, and we’ve appreciated their feedback so far.”

Amazon beta launched the shopping assistant in February, saying Rufus would initially be available to a small subset of customers using the company’s mobile app and then would be rolled out to more customers in the U.S. in the following weeks.

The AI-powered tool is trained on Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As and information from across the web, the company said at the time.

In its Friday press release, Amazon said it has found that customers are asking Rufus specific product questions; receiving answers based on the data on which it has been trained; and then clicking on related questions that Rufus surfaces to learn more.

They are also asking for product recommendations and finding that Rufus surfaces products with features relevant to their needs, the release said.

Customers are also using Rufus to compare the features of different products; keep up-to-date with new products and trends; access information about their current or past orders; and learn things tangentially related to shopping, such as the cookware they would need to make a soufflé or the products they would need for a summer party, per the release.

“While it’s still early days for both generative AI and Rufus, we’re excited to hear customers are using Rufus to help them make more informed shopping decisions,” Mehta said in the release. “As we continue to grow and improve upon Rufus, we’re looking forward to seeing how customers continue to use it to find exactly what they need or want in our store.”

For all PYMNTS retail and AI coverage, subscribe to the daily Retail and AI newsletters.