Amazon Announces Rufus in Beta across Europe

Amazon Announces Rufus in Beta across Europe

Rufus, a generative AI-powered conversational shopping assistant is being made available to select customers.

After launching in the UK in September, Rufus is available in beta in Germany, France, Italy and Spain and will be progressively rolling out to customers in the coming weeks.

Rufus, an AI-powered shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s product catalogue and information from multiple sources, can answer customer questions on shopping needs, products and comparisons, make recommendations based on this, and facilitate product discovery in the same Amazon shopping experience that customers use regularly.

Amazon has been using artificial intelligence (AI) for over 25 years to improve customer experiences. The personalised recommendations customers get when they shop in their local Amazon store, the pick paths in our fulfilment 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.

From broad research at the start of a shopping journey such as “What to consider when buying 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.

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