Amazon Rolls Out AI Shopping Assistant Rufus In Beta Mode In India

Ecommerce major Amazon has launched its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered shopping assistant in beta mode in India.

Called Rufus, the new AI assistant will answer user queries related to shopping, offer recommendations and facilitate product discovery on the online marketplace. 

In a statement, Amazon said that the new AI assistant will allow users to compare items, shop by various themes such as occasion or purpose, and receive product updates.

The offering has been rolled out only to a limited number of users on the Amazon mobile app. Rufus will be progressively made available to all users in India in the coming weeks. 

“… Today we are launching Rufus in beta to customers in India. Customers in the US have already asked Rufus tens of millions of questions, and we’re excited to introduce it in India… It’s still early days for generative AI, and the technology won’t always get it exactly right. We will keep improving our AI models and fine-tune responses to continuously make Rufus more helpful over time,” said the company. 

It is pertinent to note that Amazon initially launched Rufus in the US in February this year. Afterwards, the assistant was rolled out to all users in the US in July this year. 

Built on Amazon’s in-house shopping-focussed large language model (LLM), Rufus is trained on the ecommerce major’s product catalogue and information from across the web. The pilot run is aimed at fine tuning the model for Indian audiences before a mass rollout later on.

This comes at a time when rival Flipkart has been aggressively tapping GenAI to woo users and streamline shopping experience. In October last year, Flipkart launched its shopping assistant Flippi, powered by Open AI’s ChatGPT. 

The beta launch of Rufus comes as the Indian ecommerce ecosystem gears up for the upcoming festive season, a period which sees a steep uptick in online sales. Besides discounts, online marketplaces will also be banking on customer experience to further shore up sales.

With the launch, Amazon has joined a growing list of companies and startups that have deployed AI to spruce up their offerings. Last week, Google Search said that it will roll out its AI Overviews to India in English and Hindi. 

Last month, Mystore also introduced an AI-powered semantic search feature on its buyer and seller apps on state-backed ONDC to increase visibility of products. In July, logistics startup Shadowfax launched an AI-backed address intelligence system designed to boost accuracy and efficiency in deliveries.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s latest chatbot pilot launch comes at a time when it is in the middle of a pitched battle with rival Walmart-backed Flipkart for a bigger pie of the Indian ecommerce space, which, as per Inc42, is projected to be a $400 Bn market opportunity by 2030.