Amazon Kills Rufus, Bets Big on Alexa for Shopping
CNBC reported Wednesday that Amazon has shut down its Rufus chatbot and placed Alexa for Shopping at the center of its artificial intelligence retail push. The new tool functions as a fully agentic shopping assistant. It can answer product questions and complete actions on a shopper’s behalf.
What Alexa for Shopping Actually Does
The updated assistant merges the capabilities of Rufus with those of Alexa Plus. Amazon said it draws on purchase history, customer reviews, and a deep product catalog. That data access, the company argues, gives it a meaningful edge over rival AI shopping tools.
Users reach the assistant via a cursive A icon on Amazon’s website or mobile app. Echo Show displays also support the feature. Once active, it surfaces inside search results. A chat window appears alongside product listings. The tool lets shoppers compare items side by side. It can also schedule a purchase to trigger automatically when a price drops to a target level. No Prime membership is required.
Also Read: OpenAI Ends Instant Checkout Feature in Shopping Pivot
A Two-Year Experiment Ends
Amazon first introduced Rufus roughly two years ago as a generative AI showpiece built into its app and website. The assistant remained in beta throughout its lifespan. Despite ongoing feature expansions, Amazon ultimately folded its recommendation engine and shopping history capabilities into the new Alexa product. The Rufus interface itself will be discontinued.
Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s head of Alexa, told CNBC that competing AI shopping efforts have struggled precisely because they rely on scraping web results rather than accessing structured commerce data. He described shopping as a primary task, not a secondary feature bolted onto a general-purpose chatbot.
Also Read: How OpenAI Rethought Its AI Shopping Ambitions in 2025
A Crowded, Unsettled Market
The launch arrives as the AI shopping space grows more competitive and more uncertain. OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity have all released research and agent tools that could reshape how consumers discover and buy products online. OpenAI earlier reversed course on its own Instant Checkout feature, abandoning direct in-chat purchases in favor of retailer-built apps.
Amazon has historically resisted sharing its platform with external AI agents. Chief Executive Andy Jassy has acknowledged ongoing talks with third-party agent developers. However, the company continues to restrict bot access to its storefront. Its separate “Buy for Me” feature, which purchases goods from other retailers, has already drawn criticism from some merchant partners.
Whether consumers will broadly trust AI agents to complete purchases on their behalf remains an open question across the industry.
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