Amazon’s AI chatbot will start serving ads to users

You can’t escape advertising on the internet…even AI chatbots are starting to send ads your way.

In an update provided to its advertisers, ecommerce giant Amazon has shared that it will start serving ads via its AI-powered shopping assistant chatbot called Rufus.

“To help customers discover more products in Amazon’s generative AI-powered shopping assistant, referred to as Rufus, your ads may appear in Rufus-related placements,” reads Amazon’s September update to its Amazon Ads platform. “Rufus may generate accompanying text based on the context of the conversation.”

The Amazon update was first noticed by AdWeek.

According to Amazon, Rufus will serve ads based on the information users provide. Ads will be tailored to what the user is looking for based on their search terms, and the conversation they’re having with the chatbot.

Rufus was first launched earlier this year and rolled out across Amazon to all users in July. The AI chatbot helps provide more information on products, recommendations, and comparisons in a conversational format. Rufus uses the information available on Amazon’s product pages for its knowledge base.

As TechCrunch points out, this is not the first time an AI chatbot has been used to serve advertising. Last year, Microsoft started testing out ads in its own AI chatbot Copilot.