Amazon recently introduced Rufus, an AI-powered chatbot, within the Amazon Shopping app for Android and iOS. After a slight delay, Rufus is now being tested by early users, including TechCrunch, to assist in product comparisons and recommendations.
My experience with Rufus was quite interesting.
Rufus can be accessed on mobile by swiping up from the bottom of the screen while browsing Amazon’s catalog or by selecting one of the suggestions under the “Ask a question” section. You can ask Rufus questions by voice or by typing them in the chat interface.
Currently, the chat interface with Rufus is quite basic, with a field for questions and a limited set of options for chat history.
Rufus focuses on product research at launch.
For example, you can ask Rufus for advice on what attributes to consider when buying a specific product or request recommendations for items needed for a particular project.
I tested Rufus with questions about the best smartphones, breakfast cereal recommendations, and more. Rufus provided detailed responses and even included summaries of linked products.
Rufus recommends cereal. Image Credits: Amazon
Additionally, I tested Rufus with more specific searches, and while it performed well in some cases, there were instances where it provided irrelevant recommendations.
Overall, Rufus struggled with certain nuances in responses, suggesting a bias towards certain products. However, it did refrain from endorsing controversial content or illegal activities in answers.
Lastly, I questioned Rufus about its preferences between Amazon and its competitors, and the responses were relatively impartial.
Despite its limitations, Rufus serves as an interesting experiment combining AI chatbot capabilities with a shopping platform. While there is room for improvement, particularly in accuracy and feature set, Rufus has the potential to evolve into a valuable tool for users.
Additional reporting: Sarah Perez
