In a bid to expand its AI capabilities, Amazon has launched a new AI-powered assistant for online shoppers. The AI assistant is called Rufus and the company claims it is trained on Amazon’s product catalog and information from across the web to answer customer questions on shopping needs, products, and comparisons. Furthermore, it can make recommendations based on this context, and facilitate product discovery in the same Amazon shopping experience customers use regularly.
Where will Rufus be made available
Initially it will be made available only in the US. “Launching today in beta to a small subset of customers in Amazon’s mobile app, Rufus will progressively roll out to additional US customers in the coming weeks,” said Amazon.
What can Rufus do?
Amazon claims Rufus meaningfully improves how easy it is for customers to find and discover the best products to meet their needs. For instance, 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. Also, 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,” said Amazon in a blog post.
How to use Rufus?
To use Rufus, customers in the beta can simply start typing or speaking their questions into the search bar in Amazon’s mobile app and a Rufus chat dialog box will appear at the bottom of their screen. Customers can expand the chat dialog box to see answers to their questions, tap on suggested questions, and ask follow-up questions in the chat dialog box. Customers can dismiss Rufus to return to their traditional search results at any time by swiping down to send the chat dialog box back to the bottom of their screen, said Amazon.