Amazon's recently released shopping-focused chatbot, Rufus, will soon begin serving ads.
That's according to a changelog published by Amazon this week, first spotted by AdWeek, which suggests sponsored ads may soon start appearing for Rufus users in the U.S. Amazon said that ads will be shown based on the context of Amazon searches and conversations, and that Rufus may generate text to accompany existing ad copy in certain cases.
Image credit: Amazon
“We continue to improve the Rufus experience, including improving brand and product discovery by introducing relevant sponsored ads to help customers find options relevant to their conversations with Rufus,” the spokesperson said.
The Rufus test ad is reminiscent of Microsoft's experiment with Copilot, a chatbot for Bing, and with inserting ads into the company's other properties, including Windows. AI is a costly endeavor, so it's not at all surprising that companies are looking for proven ways to generate a return on their investment, or at least break even.