Subj : Not spending enough on Amazon already? Its new AI chatbot is here
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Fri Feb 02 2024 14:15:05

Not spending enough on Amazon already? Its new AI chatbot is here to help

Date:
Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:04:16 +0000

Description:
Amazon is rolling out a new shopping chatbot called Rufus, who wants to 
answer your questions and help you spend.

FULL STORY
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If there's one tech innovation that our bank accounts didn't need in 2024, 
it's an Amazon chatbot with infinite knowledge of the site's array of 
potential impulse buys. But unfortunately for our savings, that's exactly 
what we've just been given in the form of Rufus. 

Amazon says its Rufus chatbot has now launched in the US in beta form to "a 
small subset of customers" who use its mobile app, but that it'll 
"progressively roll out to additional US customers in the coming weeks". 
Rufus is apparently "an expert shopping assistant" who's been trained on 
Amazon's product catalog and will help answer your questions in a 
conversational way. 

Rather than Googling for extra advice on the differences between trail and 
road running shoes, the idea is that you can instead search for pointers in 
the Amazon app and Rufus will pop up with the answers. 

Quite how good those answers are remains to be seen, as Amazon says they come 
from "a combination of extensive product catalog, customer reviews, community 
Q&As, and information from across the web". Considering the variable quality 
of Amazon's reviews, and the tendency of AI chatbots to hallucinate, you may 
still want to cross-reference your research with some external sources. 

Still, it's an early glimpse at the future of shopping, with retailers 
looking to arm you with all of the information you need so you can, well, 
spend more money with them. Amazon says that the questions can be as broad as 
"what are good gifts for Valentines Day?", but also as specific as is this 
cordless drill easy to hold?" if you're on a product page. How to find and 
use Rufus 

Right now, Rufus is only being made available to "select customers when they 
next update their Amazon Shopping app". But if you live in the US and are 
keen to take it for a spin, it's worth updating your iOS or Android app to 
see if you're one of the early chosen ones. 

If you are, the bar at the top of the app should now say "search or ask a 
question". That's where you can fire conversational questions at Rufus, like 
what to consider when buying headphones?, or prompts like best dinosaur toys 
for a 5-year-old or "I want to start an indoor garden". 

The ability to ask specific questions about products on their product pages 
also sounds handy, although this will effectively only be a summary of the 
page's Q&As and reviews. Given our experience with AI shopping chatbots so 
far, we'd be reluctant to take everything at face value without 
double-checking with another source. 

Still, with Rufus getting a wider US rollout in "the coming weeks", it is a 
pretty major change to the Amazon app and could change how we shop with the 
retail giant. Amazon will no doubt be hoping it convinces us to spend more  
maybe we need two chatbots, with the other one warning us about our 
overdraft. You might also like Disney Plus plan for in-app gaming and 
shopping is the next big step in streaming evolution Microsoft's new AI 
shopping tools will create a buying guide just for you ChatGPT explained  
everything you need to know about the AI chatbot



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/software/not-spending-enough-on-amazon-alr
eady-its-new-ai-chatbot-is-here-to-help


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