Amazon has launched its AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, in India to improve customers’ shopping experience. It is available in a beta version for selected Android and iOS users.
To know more about Amazon Rufus, read here.
Rufus is trained on massive data collected by Amazon, including customer reviews, ratings, and product catalogs, to answer customer queries. It performs comparative product analysis and search operations to give precise recommendations.
To use Rufus, shoppers can update their Amazon shopping app and tap an icon on the bottom right. After doing this, the Rufus chat dialogue box will appear on the users’ screen, and they can expand it to see answers to their questions. Customers can also tap on suggested questions or ask follow-up questions to clear their doubts regarding any product. To stop using Rufus, the customers must swipe down to send the chat dialogue box again at the bottom of the app.
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Customers can ask Rufus questions such as, ‘Should I get a fitness band or a smartwatch?’ followed by specific questions like, ‘Which ones are durable?’ It helps them find the best products quickly. If the customer is looking for a smartphone, Rufus can help them shortlist mobile phones based on features such as battery life, display size, or storage capacity.
Amazon first launched Rufus in the US in February 2024 and then extended its services to other regions. During the launch in August 2024, Amazon said in its press release, “It is still early days for generative AI. We will keep improving and fine-tuning Rufus to make it more helpful over time.”
Alexa, Amazon’s AI voice assistant, has already been used extensively by users to smartly manage homes and consume personalized entertainment. However, Rufus is a conversational AI assistant who specializes in giving shopping suggestions to Amazon users. It has extensive knowledge of Indian brands and products along with festivals, which makes it capable of providing occasion-specific product suggestions.
