Amazon's AI-powered shopping assistant, named "Rufus," is now live for all U.S. customers in the Amazon mobile app, the retailer announced on Friday. The assistant, which lives on the bottom right of the app's main navigation bar, is designed to offer customers help with finding products, performing product comparisons, and getting recommendations on what to buy.
Rufus was initially available in beta only to select customers in the U.S. within the Amazon mobile app ahead of today's launch. Now, Amazon says all shoppers in the U.S. can try it after testing the chatbot across "tens of millions of questions."
First announced in February, the AI chatbot has been trained on Amazon's product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and other public information found around the web -- though Amazon isn't disclosing specifically which websites' data was used to help its assistant make better recommendations, or whether that included other retail websites.
Rufus itself is powered by an internal LLM (large language model) specialized for shopping, allowing customers to ask questions about products, including things like factors to consider when buying, how items are different from other products, or how well the product holds up, as described by customer reviews and other expert analysis pulled from around the web.
For example, customers could ask things like "What to consider when buying headphones?" "What to consider when detailing my car at home?" "What are clean beauty products?" "What do I need for cold weather golf?" and more. Plus, customers can chat with Rufus, by telling the AI something they want to do, like: "I want to start an indoor garden." The chatbot will then provide suggestions on what to buy to accomplish that task.
During tests, Amazon found that customers asked the AI questions and were also clicking on the related questions that appear in the chat window to help guide customer queries. For instance, customers might ask Rufus, "What's the material of the backpack?," and then tap on another question, "What do customers say?" to learn more.
Because Rufus understands more than just products, when a customer asked about a pool umbrella for Florida, Rufus shared facts about Florida's weather, humidity, and more, Amazon says.
In addition to product comparisons, Rufus was also helpful in keeping customers up to date with things like fashion trends or the latest tech, as customers could ask what the latest model of a product was, or what sort of styles were popular.
Rufus also served beta customers as an assistant to help them find their past orders or learn more about when current orders are arriving.
To access Rufus, U.S. customers will need to be on the latest version of the Amazon Shopping app. The assistant will be available in the bottom navigation bar, designated by an icon with chat bubbles with a sparkle.
In tests, TechCrunch found that Rufus served as a decent shopping companion, and largely steered clear of problematic answers to questions outside of shopping. However, it didn't always get its facts right, and its limitations to only Amazon's catalog -- vast as it is -- could compromise the quality of its recommendations, at times.
Amazon says it will continue to improve Rufus over time.
