Amazon announces the launch of Rufus, a new generative AI-powered conversational shopping assistant, in Canada

Amazon has been using AI for over 25 years to improve customer experiences. The personalized recommendations customers get when they shop in the Amazon store, the pick paths in our fulfillment centres, and the conversational capabilities of Alexa are just a few examples of experiences fuelled by AI. And we believe generative AI is going to change many customer experiences.

Over the past year, we’ve introduced a number of new generative AI-powered capabilities to the Amazon store to make shopping even easier and more convenient for customers. We are 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 in beta to customers in Canada. Customers in the U.S., the UK, and India have already asked Rufus tens of millions of questions, and we’re excited to introduce it here too.

From broad research at the start of a shopping journey such as “What are different types of running shoes?” to comparisons such as “What are the differences between face wash and face cleansing oil?” 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.

With Rufus, customers can:

• Learn what to look for while shopping product categories: Customers can conduct more general product research on Amazon, with queries such as “Types of headphones” or “Types of coffee machines” 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 needs by asking a range of questions such as “What do I need for climbing?” or “I want to start an indoor garden.” Rufus then suggests shoppable product categories—from safety harnesses, climbing shoes and gloves to seed starters, potting mix, and grow lights—and related questions that customers can click on for more specific searches. Because Rufus can answer a wide range of questions, it can help customers at any stage of their shopping journey by answering questions not obviously related to shopping, such as “What do I need for making smoothies?”.
• Get help comparing options: Customers can ask Rufus to quickly compare product category features by asking questions like “What’s the difference between lip gloss and lip oil?” or “Can you 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 holiday gifts for kids?” or “Best games for rainy days with 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.

With Rufus, customers are now able to shop alongside a generative AI-powered shopping assistant that knows Amazon’s selection inside and out, and can bring together multiple sources of information to help them make more informed purchase decisions.

Get started with the Rufus beta

Rufus is now being made available to select customers when they next update their Amazon Shopping app. To use Rufus, customers in the beta can simply click on the icon in the bottom righthand corner on Amazon’s mobile app and a Rufus chat box will appear on their screen. Customers can expand the chat box to see answers to their questions, tap on suggested questions, and ask follow-up questions. Customers can dismiss Rufus to return to their traditional search results at any time by swiping down to close the chat box.

Rufus generates answers using relevant information from across Amazon and other sources to help customers make better, more informed shopping decisions. It’s still early days for generative AI, and the technology won’t always get it exactly right. We will keep improving our AI models and fine-tuning responses to continuously make Rufus more helpful over time. Customers are encouraged to leave feedback by rating their answers with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and they have the option to provide freeform feedback as well.

We are excited about the potential of generative AI and will continue testing new features to make it even easier to find and discover, research, and buy products on Amazon’s store. We look forward to progressively rolling Rufus out to additional customers in the coming weeks.

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