Amazon’s Rufus Is Just the Beginning of AI Shopping

As we noticed on Black Friday, Amazon’s AI assistant, Rufus is reshaping shopper habits. Classes that led to purchases doubled for Rufus customers, in contrast with solely a 20% improve for consumers who didn’t use it. That shift isn’t siloed to Rufus both. Seventy-three % of customers use AI assistants to assist them store, 58% use AI for vacation presents, and 70% are comfy letting AI full their transactions, in line with an October Riskified survey of 5,400 individuals.The way forward for AI buying is more likely to comply with one among three paths, every with very completely different implications for retailers:Service provider-led ecosystem: Some firms will hold AI buying native to their very own platforms, blocking exterior instruments. Amazon’s Rufus is the prototype of this method. This mannequin preserves management over pricing, buyer relationships, and model expertise whereas permitting fraud groups to keep up the behavioral alerts they depend on. The trade-off requires vital funding in AI capabilities to stay aggressive.Collaborative ecosystem: Others will embrace partnerships with third-party AI buying instruments utilizing open protocols equivalent to ACP, AP2, and Visa VIC. Retailers retain some management over pricing and model presentation whereas benefiting from AI-driven site visitors. These frameworks additionally permit verification of each shopper and AI interactions, sharing intelligence to cut back fraud and disputes. Google’s AP2 announcement in September 2025, backed by Mastercard, American Categorical, and PayPal, alerts that the trade is transferring on this course. Open requirements give retailers a seat on the desk and forestall full disintermediation.Decentralized buying: Probably the most disruptive path is one wherein third-party instruments like ChatGPT change into the first interface for customers. Retailers threat being decreased to undifferentiated stock suppliers competing on worth and success. Autonomous AI can result in elevated disputes, pleasant fraud, and chargebacks, notably when accounts are compromised. A single hijacked profile can execute fraudulent purchases throughout a number of shops — a state of affairs we check with as “Compromised AI-as-a-Service.” This agentic evolution is reworking all the commerce funnel. Even well-intentioned AI can miss delivery or return insurance policies, producing non-fraud disputes. AI that scans a number of websites for the bottom worth can escalate pricing competitors. And, with cost safety topping customers’ issues, retailers can’t afford to be passive.Fraud is evolving quicker than ever, as AI buying instruments can automate credential stuffing, phishing, and mass order execution at scale. Distinguishing between respectable AI-assisted customers and malicious exercise can be turning into harder as conventional id alerts vanish.Retailers can take steps at present to organize: credential the AI itself, demand transparency from platforms on machine and behavioral information, leverage shared intelligence throughout networks, and actively take part in standard-setting protocols that outline legal responsibility and safe transactions. Amazon’s Rufus reveals what is feasible at present, and the broader AI buying revolution is just starting. Retailers who put together for these three trajectories, controlling AI inside their very own platforms, collaborating with trusted instruments, or safeguarding in opposition to a decentralized future, will achieve effectivity and conversion whereas minimizing publicity to disputes and fraud. Those that wait threat being left behind or uncovered to fraud that strikes quicker than any human can reply.