Amazon: AI shopping assistant is now available

German or Austrian customers of online retailer Amazon who have questions about a product on offer can now turn to an AI-based shopping assistant that has been trained on the basis of the Amazon product catalog and information from the Internet.

The function, known as "Rufus", was previously only made available in a beta version to selected test customers in this country. Now all customers can access Rufus via an icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the company's official shopping app. In a text chat that then starts, you can also ask the AI assistant questions about products that go beyond the technical data that Amazon usually provides on its website anyway. These questions can, for example, relate to information that can be found in the operating instructions for the product.

Rufus can also be used for comparisons between different products. According to Amazon, it should even be possible to provide specific assistance at the start of the purchase decision, such as "What do I need to make smoothies?". However, Amazon itself explains that the technology is still in its infancy and "won't always get everything exactly right". However, the company will continue to improve its AI models and continuously optimize the answers so that Rufus becomes more and more helpful over time. Customers are encouraged to give their rating using a thumb system. They can also leave comments.

At the beginning of October, Amazon began offering shopping guides for selected product categories in the USA , which are created using generative AI. However, these "AI Shopping Guides" are currently only available to US customers on mobile devices running Android and iOS. (nij)