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Amazon AI Chatbot Rufus Now Available for All US Customers

Author

Alicia Shapiro
July 12, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

An illustration of Amazon's AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, in the mobile app. The image shows a smartphone screen with the Amazon app open, highlighting Rufus in the bottom right navigation bar. The chatbot is depicted helping a user find products, compare items, and get recommendations. Various product images, chat bubbles, and icons for product comparisons and recommendations are displayed. The background includes subtle elements representing AI technology and shopping, emphasizing convenience and assistance in online shopping

Amazon AI Chatbot Rufus Now Available for All US Customers

Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant, named “Rufus,” is now available for all U.S. customers in the Amazon mobile app. The assistant, accessible from the bottom right of the app’s main navigation bar, helps users find products, compare items, and get personalized recommendations.

Beta Testing and Training

Rufus was initially available in beta to select U.S. customers. After testing the chatbot with “tens of millions of questions,” Amazon has now made it accessible to all U.S. shoppers. The AI chatbot, announced in February, is trained on Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and other public information. Amazon has not specified which external websites contributed to the AI's training data.

Capabilities of Rufus

Powered by an internal large language model (LLM) specialized for shopping, Rufus can answer questions about products, such as:

  • What factors to consider when buying an item

  • Differences between products

  • Insights from customer reviews and expert analysis

Users can also tell Rufus about tasks they want to accomplish, like starting an indoor garden, and the chatbot will suggest relevant products. During testing, customers frequently clicked on related questions in the chat window to refine their queries.

User Interaction and Additional Features

Rufus can understand more than just product-related questions. For instance, when asked about a pool umbrella for Florida, it provided information on Florida’s weather and humidity. The chatbot also keeps users updated on fashion trends and the latest tech, helping them find the newest models or popular styles.

Beta testers used Rufus to locate past orders and get updates on current ones. To access Rufus, users need the latest version of the Amazon Shopping app, where the assistant is marked by an icon with chat bubbles and a sparkle.

Performance and Future Improvements

Tests by TechCrunch found Rufus to be a helpful shopping companion, though it occasionally gave incorrect answers and was limited to Amazon’s catalog. Amazon plans to continue refining Rufus over time to improve its performance.