The updates to the company’s Rufus, announced Tuesday (Nov. 18), include enhancements to its knowledge of shopping category and product research and evaluation, and product search and recommendations.

In addition, Amazon says it has developed more than 50 technical upgrades, enhancements, and new features to make Rufus faster and more useful.

Amazon introduced a beta version of Rufus last winter, before a wider, nationwide rollout in July of 2024. The generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational shopping assistant has seen significant growth since then, the announcement said.

“More than 250 million customers have used Rufus this year, with monthly average users up 149% and interactions up 210% over the past year,” Amazon wrote. “Customers who use it while shopping are over 60% more likely to make a purchase during that shopping trip.”

The updates to Rufus come at a time bots like it and Walmart’s Sparky have “become digital concierges,” as PYMNTS wrote recently, meaning that “merchants must make their data and policies readable by machines, not just people.”

In other Amazon/Walmart news, PYMNTS wrote last week about efforts the two rivals are making to attract cautious consumers.

Both companies, the report said, are debuting new forms of innovation, such as AI-assisted purchasing and revamped advertising engines to “sustainability-fueled manufacturing and structural workforce realignments.”

For Amazon, that has meant things like Rufus, as well as rebuilding advertising machinery to capture a broader portion of consumers, while expanding its Amazon Haul/Amazon Bazaar shopping experience to 14 new markets.

In the case of Walmart, the retailer is rethinking its supply chain, PYMNTS wrote. The company’s partnerships with U.S.-based materials companies and agricultural innovators illustrate a wish not to lower reliance on vulnerable supply routes and position the company as “an engine of economic renewal.”

Walmart is also engaged in an “aggressive holiday strategy,” including early access Black Friday events and deeper-than-usual promotional cycles, the report added.

“Consumers may not see the machinations of Amazon and Walmart directly, but they will feel the effects,” PYMNTS wrote.

“More intuitive purchasing experiences. Faster and more reliable deliveries. Deals that appear earlier, run longer, and respond more dynamically to demand patterns. The choices big retailers are making this season are not merely responses to cautious spending, but the early lines of a blueprint for retail’s next decade.”