From chip-makers integrating dedicated AI accelerators into their processors to even pet collars having AI baked into them — Artificial Intelligence is all the rage right now! Now, Amazon is jumping onto the bandwagon as well. Technically, Amazon was already a frontrunner in the AI department with Alexa. So, let's say they're expanding their wings further with — Rufus!

Rufus Overview

Introduction

Rufus is an AI-powered assistant introduced by Amazon that aims to better the customers' online shopping experience. It is an open secret that Amazon is the largest online shopping platform and has a catalogue of millions of products. Given that, users can find it difficult to navigate through the Amazon. This is where Rufus will come in and help the buyers by answering their queries, offering product comparisons, making recommendations, as well as helping in discovering products. For this to work, Amazon has trained its shopping assistant on its product database and information sourced from the internet. Users can either type or speak their questions into a search bar — ChatGPT style. Similarly, a dialogue box will appear with answers, and an option for follow-up questions. While all this may sound interesting and all, but, the AI assistant is still in Beta as of now!

Functions

1. Product Research

Customers can use Rufus to further understand whatever they are looking for. For example: If they aren't well aware of what factors dictate a good product, then they can simply ask the assistant something like — “What are the things to consider before buying XYZ?”.

2. Tailored Suggestions

You can also get tailored product suggestions based on the occasions or activities. Such as, you could ask Rufus to show “Valentine's Gift Ideas” or “Toys for 5-year-olds”, and it will show you results based on your requests.

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3. Category Comparision

The Amazon shopping assistant can also help you compare similar product categories. Let's say you want to buy a wireless audio accessory, but you do not know which one is best for you. There are wireless earbuds, neckbands, headphones, bone-conducting headphones, smart glasses even. So, you could simply ask Rufus to compare these products and choose the best one for you!

4. Answering Product Queries

Moreover, Rufus can also help you out with any queries you may have when looking up a product's detail page. For instance, you are looking up a USB Type-C cable on Amazon, and you want to know if it supports PowerDelivery. Then instead of scrambling through the product's detail page, you can simply ask your shopping assistant and it will answer it for you.

Rufus Availability

As mentioned earlier, this shopping assistant is still in the beta. Given that, customers in the beta group can access Rufus by updating their Amazon Shopping app. Moreover, the company is planning to roll out this feature to more of its customers in the coming weeks, starting with a select group of users in the United States.

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