Amazon announced its new shopping assistant called Rufus, which works with productive artificial intelligence. The chatbot, which is trained with Amazon’s product catalogue, customer reviews, community Q&As and “information on the web”, is currently only available to a limited number of Amazon customers. But more people will be able to get help from Rufus in the coming weeks.
The company describes the assistant as a one-stop shop for all customers’ shopping needs. Rufus, “What should be considered when buying running shoes?” It can answer questions such as. Additionally, “What are the differences between trail running shoes and road running shoes?” It can also answer questions such as. Follow-up questions such as “Are these durable?” can also be answered with Rufus.
Amazon notes that customers can ask Rufus for general recommendations for product categories. In addition, Rufus can also provide contextual recommendations to get ideas about products based on specific activities. Offering gift suggestions for people with special tastes or helping with holiday shopping are also among Rufus’ talents.
Amazon Rufus can answer detailed questions about the displayed product
Rufus can also answer more detailed questions about the displayed product. For example, Rufus can be asked whether a jacket is suitable for machine washing.
Amazon will initially beta test Rufus with a small group of users. The digital assistant will later be rolled out to all users in the US. There is no information yet about when Amazon will open Rufus to other regions and languages.