Shopping for holiday gifts for family, friends, and other loved ones can be challenging. You not only need to find the right presents, but you also want to take advantage of any bargains or sales and ensure the items arrive in time. With so many people using Amazon for their shopping sprees, the retail site offers an assistant called Rufus. This AI-powered tool can locate and research products, uncover the best deals, and provide answers to your questions about a specific item.
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Rufus is accessible at the Amazon website as well as the Amazon mobile apps for iOS and Android. On the website, just click the Rufus button on the top toolbar to access it from any page. With the mobile apps, tap the chat bubbles icon at the lower right. You can then kick off your chat with Rufus.
For this year’s holiday season, I called on Rufus as my Amazonian shopping assistant. Here are seven ways I used it to tackle the challenges of holiday shopping.
I wanted to find gifts related to Doctor Who for my wife. (Shh, don’t tell her). At the prompt, I told Rufus simply to recommend gifts related to Doctor Who for my wife. In response, the assistant displayed a variety of products, including a bracelet, earrings, a Tardis plush blanket, a teacup, a travel bag, and more. I selected the plush blanket and asked Rufus to tell me more about it. Rufus then gave me all the key details, including its size and weight, a synopsis of customer feedback, and the current price. From there, I could easily add it to my cart.
Another way I used Rufus is to compare different products in the same category. I was looking for travel jewelry cases for my wife. I asked the AI to find these types of cases. After Rufus displayed a number of them, I told it to compare them all and recommend the best ones based on size, design, and quality. In return, the assistant cited a few products and offered recommendations for cases specifically for international travel, business trips, and vacation travel.
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Next up, I was searching for a retro-style electric can opener, one that not only worked well but looked cool. Among the results, one in particular caught my eye as it seemed simple to operate and sported a retro design. Selecting that one, I asked Rufus a few follow-up questions: 1) How does this work; 2) Describe the color; and 3) What do customers say about it? Each answer was clear, concise, and informative. The customer feedback was particularly useful as Rufus outlined the pros and cons of the item.
I wanted to find a Bluetooth speaker for a friend but I didn’t want to spend too much money. I asked Rufus to find the best deals on such speakers. In response, the AI came up with several budget-friendly choices, including ones from JBL, Sony, and Bose. It served up products starting in price from $40 all the way up to $279 and gave me recommendations for speakers in each price range.
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In a couple of cases, I was stuck for ideas on what to buy someone. This is another area where Rufus can help. In this case, I told it I was having trouble finding a gift for a friend and that I wanted to spend between $25 and $50. The AI offered a few suggestions, but then asked me to describe the person to fine-tune the choices. After I told Rufus that my friend likes history, art, and theater, it narrowed the list and recommended some interesting and unique products in each of those categories.
Rufus can alert you if the price of an item drops and even buy it for you so you don’t miss out on the deal. Here, I wanted to purchase the AirPods Pro 3 as a gift for a family member but I wanted to see if the price would drop. I told Rufus to alert me if the price fell below its current level. It asked me to choose a percentage for the price. I could also tell it to automatically buy it at that amount. I then selected the option to create a price alert.
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Finally, I wanted to make sure the products I ordered would arrive before Christmas. To do this, I asked Rufus. After giving me the status of my recent orders, the AI provided the delivery dates for each item. I was then able to drill down to a specific item to see more details and get a link to track it.
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