Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, is showing early signs of driving both engagement and sales on the platform. According to new data, Black Friday saw a notable increase in shopping sessions with Rufus, as well as sessions that led to purchases, reflecting growing consumer interest in AI-assisted shopping. Ahead of the holiday, other tech companies including Google, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft also launched AI-powered shopping tools.
Ian Simpson, Senior Vice President of Innovation and Strategy at Sensor Tower, shared data showing that in the US, shopping sessions on the Amazon app using Rufus increased by 86 per cent compared with a regular non-sale day two weeks earlier. In comparison, sessions without Rufus rose by just 16 per cent. While Rufus’ overall adoption is still limited, the trend indicates that users are beginning to incorporate the AI assistant into their shopping routines.
Rufus was used in 38 per cent of total sessions, a slight rise from 34 per cent during Amazon’s Prime Day. More importantly, sessions with Rufus that led to purchases were up by 75 per cent compared with sessions without the AI assistant, highlighting its impact on conversions rather than just engagement.
Adobe Analytics also reported a surge in AI-driven e-commerce traffic during November, with AI-based visits increasing 770 per cent year-on-year. Of these, 74.4 per cent came from desktop devices, while 25.6 per cent were on smartphones or tablets.
Simpson advised caution, noting that while Rufus appears to improve conversions, it may primarily act as an advanced search tool rather than a fully agentic shopping assistant. “Conversions do seem to be higher with Rufus but that could be because it’s driving better search results versus radically changing the shopping experience,” he said.
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