Amazon has announced a new shopping assistant that uses generative AI to help customers search for products. The e-commerce giant is very familiar with AI and machine learning technology, which it provides through Amazon Web Services. Now the AI developments of the past few years are catching up to the company’s world-famous retail business.
Ever notice it’s hard to get great answers on shopping journey questions? And, to get good answers where they’re deeply integrated into a shopping experience you love and trust?
Buying guidance like: “what is important to consider when buying headphones?”
Shopping missions… pic.twitter.com/Pc6EynyGir
— Andy Jassy (@ajassy) February 2, 2024
AI Chatbots & Shopping Assistants
Amazon’s new AI helper comes as a predictable development for the company. Since OpenAI pioneered generative AI advancements in 2020, the technology has seen public-facing use by many businesses. Amazon, with their deep pockets and internet-savvy divisions, were always guaranteed to use it.
ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots enable online businesses, even small stores run by individuals, to scale up customer-facing services that they can’t handle themselves. While this is the case for online retail, many other industries have made the transition to the Internet without adopting these AI innovations. Entertainment industries like streaming or iGaming can deliver their services without it, and they continue to find popularity online. For example, casino websites succeed based on the quality of games they offer while enticing customers with free spins and other bonuses. In retail, a lot can go wrong and the customer can have time-sensitive questions, which is where AI assistants thrive.
Despite the obvious use for AI chatbots, Amazon has taken their time perfecting Rufus – their chosen name for the AI. Rufus isn’t their first AI assistant – last year AWS debuted Amazon Q to help their web service customers. While AWS may be the most profitable segment of the company, most people know Amazon for their online storefront, which has lacked an AI helper until now.
Meet Rufus
That’s why Amazon has debuted Rufus, an expert shopping assistant that has digested the company’s vast catalog of products. Armed with product knowledge and other pertinent info, Rufus is a conversational chatbot that is designed to answer customer queries quickly and efficiently. It values context, meaning it can discern and compare products from each other, and even make recommendations based on the criteria that you feed it.
Rufus may seem like a simple name for an AI assistant, but there is a story behind it. Rufus was a Welsh Corgi that belonged to Richard and Susan Benson, who were an engineer and editor-in-chief at the company, respectively. Their dog was invited into the office during the earliest days of the company, back when it was an online book retailer. He’s still commemorated on Amazon’s website. This sentimental naming scheme has been seen with other companies embracing AI, such as Forbes naming its own conversation AI Adelaide after the founder’s wife.
Now Rufus is intended to guide customers through their Amazon shopping experience. The AI is being rolled out progressively, starting with a randomly chosen subset of Amazon mobile app users. From there, others in the US will gradually gain access to Rufus if there are no technical difficulties. If successful, Rufus is likely to become a mainstay on Amazon’s mobile app and may expand to the company’s non-mobile sites too.
