‘Amazon Rufus’ AI experience comes to the Amazon Shopping app

Rufus is an expert shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s product catalog and information from across the web to answer customer questions on shopping needs, products, and comparisons, make recommendations based on this context, and facilitate product discovery in the same Amazon shopping experience customers use regularly.

Launching today in beta to a small subset of customers in Amazon’s mobile app, Rufus will progressively roll out to additional U.S. customers in the coming weeks.

Amazon has been using AI very expansively for 25+ years to improve customer experiences. The personalized recommendations customers get when they shop Amazon’s store, the pick paths in our fulfillment centers, our drone deliveries, the conversational capabilities of Alexa, and our checkout-free Amazon Go stores are just a few examples of experiences fueled by AI. And we believe generative AI is going to change virtually all customer experiences that we know.

This past year, we’ve introduced a number of new generative AI-powered capabilities in Amazon’s store to make shopping even easier and more convenient. Our AI-generated review highlights provide customers with common themes from dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of reviews at a glance to help them quickly understand customer insights. We also recently introduced our Fit Review Highlights feature, which offers personalized size guidance and insights so customers can determine which size will fit them best. We are also using generative AI to make product listings even more informative for customers by helping our selling partners write more engaging and effective titles and product descriptions, and enrich existing listings.

Building on these AI customer innovations, today we are launching Rufus.

Rufus is a generative AI-powered expert shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s extensive product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and information from across the web to answer customer questions on a variety of shopping needs and products, provide comparisons, and make recommendations based on conversational context.

From broad research at the start of a shopping journey such as “what to consider when buying running shoes?” to comparisons such as “what are the differences between trail and road running shoes?” to more specific questions such as “are these durable?”, Rufus meaningfully improves how easy it is for customers to find and discover the best products to meet their needs, integrated seamlessly into the same Amazon shopping experience they use regularly.

We’re launching Rufus in beta and starting to roll it out to customers in waves, beginning with a small subset of customers in the U.S. using our mobile app, and progressively rolling it out to the rest of our U.S. customers in the coming weeks.

With Rufus, customers can:

• Learn what to look for while shopping product categories: Customers can conduct more general product research on Amazon, asking questions such as “what to consider when buying headphones?”, “what to consider when detailing my car at home?”, or “what are clean beauty products?” and receive helpful information to guide their shopping mission.
• Shop by occasion or purpose: Customers can search for and discover products based on activity, event, purpose, and other specific use cases by asking a range of questions such as “what do I need for cold weather golf?” or “I want to start an indoor garden.” Rufus suggests shoppable product categories—from golf base layers, jackets, and gloves to seed starters, potting mix, and grow lights—and related questions that customers can click on to conduct more specific searches.
• Get help comparing product categories: Customers can now ask “what’s the difference between lip gloss and lip oil?” or “compare drip to pour-over coffee makers” so they can find the type of product that best suits their needs and make even more confident purchase decisions.
• Find the best recommendations: Customers can ask for recommendations for exactly what they need, such as “what are good gifts for Valentine’s Day?” or “best dinosaur toys for a 5-year-old.” Rufus generates results tailored to the specific question and makes it quick and easy for customers to browse more refined results.
• Ask questions about a specific product while on a product detail page: Customers can use Rufus to quickly get answers to specific questions about individual products when they are viewing the product’s detail…