Amazon Retires Shopping Chatbot Rufus, Handing Role to Alexa Instead
Amazon put Rufus to work in 2024 and said more than 300 million shoppers were consulting the AI bot on their buys in 2025.
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Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, is headed to an early retirement. Instead, Amazon is counting on Alexa to help shoppers compare prices for bulk toilet paper orders and to suggest they splurge on a high-end bidet.
Amazon put Rufus to work in 2024 and said more than 300 million shoppers were consulting the AI bot on their buys in 2025. But now, Amazon thinks Alexa will do a better job of bridging users’ experiences across its ecosystem: If someone chats with Alexa on their Echo speaker about getting into baking, Alexa can pop up on the Amazon site later to help them choose cake pans and piping tips.
Everyone’s Personal Shopper
Tech companies want to use agentic AI chatbots to put Miranda Priestly in everyone’s pockets. The new Alexa can make suggestions, compare products, generate guides and auto-buy products that hit a certain price.
Whether shoppers are ready to hand AI their credit cards is another question:
- OpenAI ended Instant Checkout this year, a feature that let ChatGPT users check out directly within the chat. Now, retailers are creating apps within the chatbot instead. Multiple retailers, including early partner Etsy, told Modern Retail that people weren’t buying much within ChatGPT.
- Amazon has gotten backlash for letting AI complete purchases on third-party sites on a shopper’s behalf, a feature that’ll live on under the new Alexa shopping assistant. Retailers have complained about the program, saying they didn’t opt into it and that it allows users to order nonexistent or sold-out products. Amazon told CNBC that “Buy for Me” helps businesses reach new customers and drive more sales.
Alexa, Play Mall Muzak: A recent report from McKinsey and ICSC found that AI could drive $1 trillion in retail sales by 2030, but it suggested AI shopping tools may be used more for discovery than checkout. Many shoppers even head to IRL stores to make the final purchase after researching products using AI. Tech companies are also assuming that shopping is a chore that people want to automate … Clearly, they’ve never strolled around stores drinking smoothies with their BFF.
