Amazon launches AI powered shopping assistant 'Rufus'

Wouldn't it be amazing to have an assistant while shopping who advises you on all the latest trends?

Well, now you can have your own personal shopping assistant.

Amazon on Thursday announced the launch of "Rufus,” an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered shopping assistant that’s been trained on the e-commerce giant's product catalogue and knows information from around the web, Fox News reported.

According to the company, the new tool will first be launched to a subset of US customers in beta before expanding to more users.

Customers will be able to chat with Rufus inside Amazon's mobile app to get help with finding products, performing product comparisons, and getting recommendations on what to buy.

In addition, the AI can assist with product comparisons and suggestions for queries such as "What are some suitable Valentine's Day gifts?" or "What are the top dinosaur toys for a five-year-old?"

Amazon Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andy Jassy said, "We’re at the start of what Rufus will do, with further personalisation and expansion coming, but we’re excited about how it’ll make discovery easier on Amazon."

"It lets customers discover items in a very different way than they have been able to on e-commerce websites," he added. 

Rufus will roll out to other US customers in the coming weeks.