Amazon ditches Rufus AI chatbot in favor of Alexa shopping agent

Amazon Rufus is discontinuing its chatbot and making its Alexa assistant the centerpiece of its AI shopping strategy.

The company on Wednesday launched Alexa for Shopping, an e-commerce bot that can answer queries and perform actions on behalf of users. Amazon said the tool combines Rufus and Alexa+ and uses users’ shopping history and other data to become “the world’s best, most personalized AI assistant for shopping.”

As part of this move, Amazon is adding Alexa to search results in its store; so when users browse certain products, a chat window will appear with information and a few recommended items.

A little more than two years ago, Amazon introduced Rufus as a key part of its website and app, seeking to capitalize on the productive AI boom that is spreading across the tech sector and other parts of the economy. Rufus described She was working as an “expert shopping assistant” at the time, and Amazon continued to expand her capabilities despite being in beta.

The standalone Rufus chatbot will be discontinued, but Amazon said it will use Rufus’ recommendation features and shopping history for certain Alexa queries for Shopping. Users can summon Alexa to Shop by clicking the handwritten A icon on Amazon’s website or app, or via their Echo Show screen.

Alexa for shopping turns Amazon’s search bar into a Q&A engine and also allows users to compare products side by side and schedule purchases when an item reaches a certain price. Prime membership is not required to use the tool.

Amazon is honing its strategy as the e-commerce industry grapples with the rise of artificial intelligence shopping bots. OpenAI, Google and Perplexity launched research tools and intermediaries last year that threaten to disrupt the way people shop online. Some of these efforts have stumbled, and it’s unclear whether consumers are ready to hand over the task of completing a purchase to bots.

Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s top Alexa executive, said the new offering is superior to other AI shopping tools because it provides access to valuable data such as customer reviews and an extensive product catalogue. It can also reliably tell the user whether a product is in stock or estimated delivery times, Rausch said.

“The more I use it, the more I understand why other AI efforts have a hard time shopping around, because it’s not just about scraping web results and then putting them into a conversation,” Rausch said in an interview.

Earlier this year, OpenAI significantly changed its AI shopping plans. The company discontinued Instant Payment, a tool that allowed users to pay directly from ChatGPT, in order to work with retailers to build custom apps within the chatbot. OpenAI said at the time that its shopping apps would make it “more seamless” for users to shop.

Rausch said he wasn’t surprised that “others had to roll back a set of features that were fundamentally missing or disjointed.”

“It’s not worth it,” he said. “Shopping is not something you do as a side hustle.”

Amazon has been reluctant to partner with rival AI platforms and open its site to external shopping agencies. CEO Andy Jassy said the company is “having conversations” and expects to partner with third-party representatives, but Amazon continues to block many bots from accessing its site.

It also launched “Buy for Me,” which uses artificial intelligence to purchase products on a customer’s behalf, including items sold on other retailers’ websites. The tool has sparked backlash from some retailers, who say they never participated in the program.

By adding Alexa for Shopping to search results, Amazon is taking advantage of valuable promotional real estate.

The move could be devastating for Amazon’s millions of third-party sellers, who pay top dollar to promote their listings and rank higher in traditional search results. What Amazon calls sponsored product listings make up the majority of the company’s advertising revenue.

Alexa for Shopping will feature ads where they’re relevant and “enhance” the shopping experience, Rausch said, adding that it’s not designed to “collapse” search results.

“It’s there to offer more products to customers, in some cases depending on where you are in the journey,” he said.

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