Amazon’s AI Chatbot Rufus to Feature Ads in Latest Innovation Move

Amazon has added sponsored ads to Rufus’s product search results to improve the shopping experience, but advertisers are still worried about how to see how well their ads are doing.

Amazon made this change public this week through a changelog. It will allow sponsored ads, which are Amazon’s main type of search ads, to show up in Rufus’ product search results. Rufus has been accessible through the Amazon mobile app since February 2024. It helps users find products by answering questions and making personalized product suggestions.

According to Amazon, the ads will match the user’s search and enhance the shopping experience rather than detract from it. This chatbot could help advertisers reach more people, but there are concerns about how well these ads work. Amazon has stated that their standard reports for advertisers will not incorporate performance metrics for ads displayed in Rufus.

This lack of visibility could make it harder to figure out how successful ad campaigns are, which could lead brands to come up with new ways to see how they affect overall sales. Also, this isn’t the first time that a chatbot maker has looked into adding ads to a chatbot. Earlier this year, Microsoft included ads in Copilot, but users’ anger led to the removal of the feature.

Amazon’s AI Ad Strategy

Amazon says that adding ads to Rufus is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to improve the shopping experience. However, this may not be the whole story, since companies that invest in AI want to make money from their investments.

New data shows that many businesses that put a lot of money into AI still have trouble getting a satisfactory return on their investments.

It’s not a surprise that Amazon and other companies that focus on AI are actively looking for ways to make money off of their investments.