Artificial intelligence algorithms are coming to some of the most valuable real estate in retail: the Amazon.com Inc search bar.
Queries typed into Amazon’s website and mobile app will soon reply, depending on the context, with product comparisons or suggestions generated by AI large language models, the online retailer said on May 13.
The new tool – called Alexa for Shopping – supplants Rufus, the shopping assistant bot that summarised product reviews and suggested purchases. To invoke Rufus, users had to click a blue and orange icon. The new search experience will appear by default, beginning this week for users in the US.
Amazon is hoping that AI-powered answers will help keep shoppers from defecting to other sites or chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, which have sought to make it easier for users to find and buy products, and some have teamed up with retailers. Web search providers, including Alphabet Inc’s dominant Google Search, have for the past few years incorporated AI-generated answers in response to queries.
"Customers do have a lot of choices for retail, and we face tons of competition, and if you make something that easy and you help, you will benefit from it,” Daniel Rausch, an Amazon vice president who leads teams working on Alexa, said in an interview. "And I think we do have that kind of faith about this move for the search bar.”
The new results are triggered by how a user structures their search, Rausch said, surfacing AI answers and personalised recommendations if a shopper, for example, wants to compare espresso machines, use a prompt to build a skin-care routine and order the products, or set birthday reminders that come with gift suggestions for specific family members. Simpler queries – "pants,” say, or "bananas” – will get right to standard product listings.
As part of the changes announced on Wednesday, owners of the company’s Echo-branded smart speakers with screens will be able to use the full Amazon website. Previously, browsing options were limited by Alexa’s restricted shopping functionality.
Amazon started rolling out its AI-powered Alexa+ software in February 2025 after a lengthy development process that largely scrapped the digital voice assistant’s prior software architecture. Alexa+ costs US$20 (RM78) a month, but is free for paying members of Amazon’s Prime programme.
Rufus, introduced a year earlier for Amazon shoppers, was used by 300 million customers in 2025, the company said. The Alexa for Shopping tools have incorporated the bot’s functionality and will be offered for free to all users. – Bloomberg
