Amazon rolls out Rufus, a generative AI shopping assistant

Amazon has began giving select users access to its AI shopping assistant called Rufus which launched in beta this week.

Rufus is a text-based chatbot that gives users with a conversational shopping experience that guides the user in discovering recent products and answering product queries.

Amazon trained the AI on the vast amount of product listing data it has in addition to user reviews and data collected from its community Q&As.

Before Rufus, shoppers would wish to read through piles of reviews to get a way of the general feedback on a product before deciding whether or not to purchase it. If you had a matter a couple of product, you’d need to read through the listing details or the questions and answers others had posted within the Q&As section.

Now you possibly can simply ask Rufus, and the AI will provide a solution based on the information at its disposal. Amazon says Rufus will even access “information from across the net” without being more specific on what data it collects.

Amazon gave examples of how a consumer could use Rufus with questions like “What to contemplate when buying trainers?” or “What are the differences between trail and road trainers?”

A client could use Rufus to find recent products by asking broader questions like, “What do I would like for cold weather golf?”

Want to search out an ideal gift but don’t have time to do the research? Simply prompt Rufus with “best dinosaur toys for a 5-year-old” to get a curated list of products.

Implications beyond shopping

Rufus will undoubtedly make shopping on Amazon quite a bit easier however the chatbot will impact people and firms beyond the shopping platform.

Amazon’s associates program has spawned an enormous industry supporting the creation of Search engine optimization-optimized web sites designed to drive traffic to Amazon products to earn affiliate commissions.

Previously, you’ll Google a matter like “What is the very best drip coffee maker?”, click through to one among the highest web sites within the search results, and browse the content. With Rufus, you now not need to try this.

Google ads and Amazon affiliate revenue from referral traffic from the product review site can add as much as substantial monthly revenue. Once Rufus rolls out fully, these sites will almost definitely see a dip in traffic and income.

Rufus is example of how AI is totally changing the way in which we use the web to search out answers to our questions. It’s also an example of how quickly AI can disrupt entire industries and income streams.