Amazon puts Alexa inside the search bar as agentic commerce heats up

"Starting this week, US customers typing into the search field on Amazon.com or in the Amazon app will be routed through Alexa for Shopping, a unified version of the company's Rufus chatbot and its Alexa+ assistant that returns conversational answers, product comparisons, up to a year of price history, and personalised shopping guides alongside the standard product listings."

"The Rufus brand is being retired from the shopping interface. The chatbot, launched in 2024 and used by more than 300 million customers in 2025, is being folded into the Alexa for Shopping name across Amazon's app, website, and Echo devices."

"Amazon says the new assistant can also automate reordering of household staples, track prices, alert customers to new products in tracked categories, and build out shopping carts based on stated preferences."

"The structural change is that the AI now sits inside the default search flow rather than behind a separate icon. Rufus, in its original form, was accessible but optional. Alexa for Shopping reframes the search box itself as a conversational interface, in the same way Google's AI Overviews changed what happens after a query on Google.com."

Amazon is integrating a unified shopping assistant into the default Amazon search experience for US customers. Starting this week, queries typed into the search field on Amazon.com and in the Amazon app are routed through Alexa for Shopping, combining Rufus and Alexa+ capabilities. The assistant provides conversational answers, product comparisons, up to a year of price history, and personalized shopping guides alongside standard product listings. The Rufus brand is being retired and the chatbot is folded into the Alexa for Shopping name across Amazon’s app, website, and Echo devices. The assistant can automate reordering, track prices, send alerts for tracked categories, and build shopping carts based on stated preferences. It is available for free to any signed-in US account without Prime, an Echo device, or the standalone Alexa app.

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