Amazon.com and Alexa are finally talking.
The tech giant on Wednesday announced Alexa for Shopping, a new capability that connects the Rufus e-commerce chatbot with its Alexa+ assistant, which aims to integrate product research, user preferences and shopping activities across Amazon’s apps, websites and Echo devices.
The move comes as consumers increasingly turn to popular AI assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini for shopping advice. By creating an AI-integrated shopping experience, Amazon aims to keep that research and the resulting purchases on its platforms.
Several of Amazon’s new features reflect a broader push into agent AI, which takes action on behalf of the customer. For example, Alexa shopping can monitor prices and automatically buy an item when it reaches a certain target, or even put important household items on a schedule.
With the merger, Amazon is dropping the name “Rufus” from its shopping center, replacing a chatbot with Alexa to mark the purchase in its app and website. Amazon says Rufus will continue to run parts of the experience behind the scenes.
Broad landscape: ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity have all launched shopping features in recent months, with Google enabling chat checkout at retailers like Walmart and Wayfair. (OpenAI withdrew its opt-out feature in March after it failed to navigate).
Amazon is also looking to keep AI rivals out of its territory: A federal judge in March blocked Perplexity’s Comet browser from being purchased on Amazon on behalf of users, though the order remained pending. In a statement at the time, Amazon called it “an important step to maintain a reliable shopping experience for Amazon customers.”
On the product front, Amazon is betting that a unified and personalized experience will be more important to customers than the ability to compare products across retailers with a general-purpose AI assistant.
Release details: Alexa shopping will launch in the US next week, the company said. It will be available for free to customers signed into an Amazon account through the Amazon Shopping app and Amazon.com, with no Prime membership, Echo device or Alexa app required.
The company is also bringing the full Amazon shopping experience to Echo Show devices, starting with Alexa+ customers on the latest Echo Show 15 and 21, with more devices to follow.
Use cases and features: Rajiv Mehta, vice president of Conversational Shopping at Amazon, said the company has seen customers start shopping “missions” in one place and start elsewhere because Rufus and Alexa don’t share a memory or context.
The idea is that “the customer should not have to think about where to start the conversation with Amazon,” said Mehta in an interview with GeekWire. The feature uses what customers have told Amazon once, and then makes that context available on Amazon’s other devices, sites, and apps.
For example, talking about his use, Mehta said that a customer can think of a suitable science project with Alexa on the Echo device, then open the Amazon app and request the available materials without redefining the project. Or a shopper can research laptops on the Amazon app, set a price alert, and be notified on their Echo when the price drops, and buy it with a voice command.
Other features in Alexa Shopping include:
- Asking questions directly in Amazon’s main search bar, rather than opening a separate chat window.
- Scheduled actions that automate tasks like restocking household essentials, getting alerts when a favorite author releases a new book, or adding a product to cart when it drops below a set price.
- Custom shopping guides for big purchases that compare features, prices and reviews across Amazon and the web.
- Product price history is extended to a full year, from 30 and 90 days.
Privacy Implications: Amazon says customers will be able to review and manage their Alexa interactions and conversations through the Alexa Privacy Dashboard.
Mehta said customers can remove specific Alexa shopping conversations and opt out of having those interactions stored as part of shared content between Alexa and Amazon’s shopping services.
From Amazon: Rufus launched in 2024 and was used by more than 300 million customers by 2025, according to the company. On Amazon’s recent earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy said that Rufus’ monthly active users are up more than 115% and engagement is up nearly 400% year-over-year.
Jassy compared third-party AI purchasing agents to the early days of search engines targeting business in e-commerce. Those agents lack personalization and purchase history and often can’t get pricing or product information right, he said, noting that customers looking to shop at a particular store will often start with their assistant as a result.
Amazon’s ambition, Jassy said, is to develop “the best shopping assistant anywhere.”
