Level up your shopping game with Rufus, Amazon's AI assistant

Think Amazon Alexa is impressive? Well, wait till you try Rufus! Amazon unveiled its AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, earlier this year. So far, Rufus has been available in beta to a small set of Amazon’s customers. However, in a recent post, the retailer announced that the shopping assistant is now available to all US customers within the Amazon Shopping app.

The shopping assistant is designed to answer product-specific questions, help with recommendations, and compare items. Customers can also use Rufus to get quick access to their order history as well as keep track of product updates. These are just some of Rufus’ many capabilities, given that the shopping assistant has been trained on Amazon’s product catalog, community Q&As and reviews, and public information from other websites in an effort to help the AI tool make better recommendations.

In its post, Amazon noted that a customer asked Rufus for pool umbrella recommendations for Florida. In response, the shopping assistant shared facts about the humidity and weather in Florida and suggested what features to look for when shopping for a pool umbrella. Amazon said customers could also ask Rufus specific questions like, “Is this coffee maker easy to clean and maintain?” and “Is this mascara a clean beauty product?”

Additionally, the retailer notes that Rufus can answer questions that may not be directly related to shopping. For instance, a customer who wants to purchase products needed to make a cake could ask, “What do I need to make a chocolate cake?” In response, Rufus will provide a list of baking essentials that can be purchased through Amazon. This way, Rufus can add a lot of convenience to a customer’s shopping experience.

Accessing Amazon’s AI shopping assistant

Rufus is currently live for everyone in the US who uses the Amazon Shopping app. If you’re unable to access Amazon’s shopping assistant, make sure your app is updated to the latest version. You’ll see a Rufus icon (two chat bubbles with a sparkle) under the main navigation bar at the bottom of your screen. Tapping the icon will bring up a chat box, and you can proceed to ask any questions you have or test out the feature by tapping one of the suggested questions.