Amazon ditches Rufus chatbot, launches Alexa shopping agent in AI strategy pivot
The tool combines Rufus and Alexa+ to answer queries, compare products and take actions on behalf of users.
- On Wednesday, Amazon launched Alexa for Shopping, an e-commerce assistant replacing the standalone Rufus chatbot across the Amazon app, Amazon.com, and Echo devices.
- Originally unveiled over two years ago, Rufus was described as an "expert shopping assistant," but Amazon is now axing the chatbot to make Alexa the centerpiece of its AI shopping strategy.
- Alexa for Shopping features "agentic" shopping tools that can act on a customer's behalf, including Auto-Buy and Scheduled Actions; Daniel Rausch, Amazon's top Alexa executive, said the tool accesses vast product data for superior results.
- Integrating the assistant into search results, Amazon utilizes valuable promotional real estate; Rausch said ads will appear only when they "enhance" the shopping experience rather than "narrow" results.
- While Amazon faces competition from OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company expects to partner with third-party agents, though it continues to block many bots from accessing its site.
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Alexa+ arrived in Spain for the purpose of interacting through a more natural language and accessing a number of useful functions for the day-to-day. Thanks to this deployment, users can have fluid conversations with the assistant, get tips or attire suggestions, make the purchase list, play music lists, coordinate family events, manage smart home devices or stay informed about what is going on in the world, among other capabilities.Now, with th…
Amazon Retires Shopping Chatbot Rufus, Handing Role to Alexa Instead
Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, is headed to an early retirement. Instead, Amazon is counting on Alexa to help shoppers compare prices for bulk toilet paper orders and to suggest they splurge on a high-end bidet. Amazon put Rufus to work in 2024 and said more than 300 million shoppers were consulting the AI bot on their buys in 2025. But now, Amazon thinks Alexa will do a better job of bridging users’ experiences across its ecosystem: If…
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