Amazon Kills Rufus AI, Replaces It With Alexa for Shopping AI Assistant

Amazon, on Wednesday, announced Alexa for Shopping, a new artificial intelligence (AI) shopping assistant. The new tool comes with agentic capabilities and replaces Rufus AI, a mainstay on the app and the website since February 2024. The Seattle-based tech giant revealed that the new AI experience combines Rufus AI and Alexa+ to bring an assistant that not only has deep knowledge of Amazon's shopping platform and catalogued products, but also brings the immersive conversational layer with agentic automation. The new tool is first rolling out in the US.

Amazon Introduced Alexa for Shopping

In a newsroom post, Amazon announced and detailed the new Alexa for Shopping AI assistant. Calling it the “world's best, most personalised AI assistant for shopping,” the company said that it is currently being rolled out to users in the US across the e-commerce app and website, and Echo Show devices. The tech giant did not reveal when the feature would be expanded to other markets.

The announcement also means that the company will now transition Rufus AI as it begins integrating the new AI assistant. However, Rufus will not be completely gone. The new agentic offering merges Alexa+ and Rufus. That means Rufus' product knowledge and context of users' in-app behaviour, combined with the conversational and agentic layer of Alexa+, creates Alexa for Shopping.

Alexa for Shopping features
Photo Credit: Amazon

Amazon describes the AI assistant as a “more personal, helpful shopping experience.” Alexa for Shopping can recommend products based on queries, can remember past requests, can gain context about connected smart home appliances via Alexa+, set price alerts, and even suggest products on the basis of delivery date.

Coming to the new capabilities, users can now ask the AI assistant questions inside the Amazon search bar or via the dedicated chat window (same location as Rufus). Users can ignore keyword-focused search and type or speak what they're looking for in natural language. These questions can be about recommendations, product comparisons, and even inquiries about orders.

Alexa for Shopping will also surface AI-generated overviews at the top of search results, providing users with a summary of the product category and what to look for before purchasing something. It can also show price history on product detail pages to reveal how the price has changed over the last year.

The tool also gets agentic capabilities and can now add items to the cart or build a cart from scratch based on prompts. Users can also schedule routine purchases, such as diapers or kitchen rolls. Amazon says users can add more customised requests, asking Alexa for Shopping to “add the item to the cart if its price drops by Rs. 500." Users can also buy items from third-party retailers via the Shop Direct feature. Finally, users can view and update details such as family members, pets, interests, dietary preferences, and more to let the chatbot know the user and personalise the experience.