Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is swapping out its Rufus chatbot for Alexa, positioning it as the core of its AI shopping strategy.
The e-commerce giant introduced Alexa for Shopping, a new AI shopping bot on Wednesday. This new tool merges the functionalities of Rufus and Alexa+, utilizing user shopping data to craft a personalized AI shopping assistant.
The Rufus chatbot will be phased out, but its recommendation features and shopping history will be incorporated into Alexa for Shopping. The new tool can be accessed via Amazon’s website or app, or through Echo Show displays.
Alexa for Shopping revolutionizes Amazon’s search bar into a Q&A engine, enabling users to compare products and schedule purchases when a product hits a certain price. A Prime membership is not necessary to utilize the tool.
Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s top Alexa executive, told CNBC that the new offering outperforms other AI shopping tools as it has access to valuable data like customer reviews and a vast product catalog. It can also reliably inform a user about product availability and estimated delivery times.
Rausch said Alexa for Shopping will show ads only when they are relevant and “"enhance" the shopping experience, emphasizing that the feature is meant to expose customers to more products rather than narrow search results.
AI Shopping Race Heats Up
The move comes amid intensifying competition in the AI-powered shopping space, with Amazon integrating Rufus features into Alexa for Shopping to strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving e-commerce market.
In October, OpenAI launched Instant Checkout on ChatGPT, posing a direct threat to Amazon. This was followed by Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) integrating ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout to offer AI-first shopping. The company described the partnership as a move toward "agentic commerce," where AI predicts customer needs and takes actions on their behalf.
Amazon’s Rufus, launched in 2024, had been instrumental in refining searches, summarizing product reviews, and retrieving past orders more efficiently, as explained by CEO Andy Jassy during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February 2025.
According to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings, Amazon.com has a growth score of 95.73 and a momentum rating of 78.65. Benzinga’s screener allows you to compare AMZN’s performance with its peers.
AMZN Price Action: On a year-to-date basis, Amazon.com shares surged 19.26%, according to Benzinga Pro. On Wednesday, it closed 1.62% higher at $270.13.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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