What is Amazon Rufus?

Rufus is Amazon's AI shopping assistant. Launched a year earlier, it was given major visibility during Prime Day 2025 to show how central AI has become to Amazon's shopping experience. It handles natural language, context-aware conversations: answering nuanced product questions, recommending items, comparing options and distilling reviews into useful insight, all in real time.

What is Walmart Sparky?

Sparky is Walmart's AI shopping assistant, launched as part of a broader shift toward AI-driven, agentic commerce. Like Rufus, it replaces keyword-driven navigation with conversation, and it is treated as strategic infrastructure inside the shopping experience rather than a feature layered on top of it.

How much did AI-driven retail traffic grow during Prime Day 2025?

Adobe Analytics reported a 3,300% year-over-year increase in GenAI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites during Prime Day 2025, far surpassing expectations. AI-powered tools and generative-AI browsers were not only helping consumers shop, they were reshaping how shoppers entered and navigated the journey in the first place.

How can a retailer match Amazon and Walmart without building its own assistant?

By deploying one that already exists. Amazon and Walmart can afford proprietary assistants; most brands cannot and should not. The iAdvize AI Shopping Assistant is already active on the storefronts of nearly 200 retailers, provides shopping guidance at scale and personalized assistance across the journey, and goes live in a few hours without overhauling the tech stack.

Published on July 25 2025 Updated on September 25 2026

4 min

Amazon and Walmart Raised the Bar. Here’s How Retailers Can Catch Up.

iAdvize

Summary

The essentials

What Amazon and Walmart did : both put an AI shopping assistant at the centre of the customer experience, Amazon with Rufus during Prime Day 2025 and Walmart with Sparky.

What changes for shoppers : keyword navigation gives way to natural language: the assistant answers detailed questions, compares options and distills reviews in real time.

The measured jump : Adobe Analytics recorded a 3,300% year-over-year increase in generative-AI-driven traffic to US retail sites during Prime Day 2025.

Why it matters for everyone else : as expectations rise, a static site and a scripted support bot start reading as friction rather than as a neutral baseline.

Two of the biggest names in global e-commerce, Amazon and Walmart, have now placed AI shopping assistants at the center of their customer experience. Amazon first launched Rufus a year ago, but gave it major visibility during Prime Day 2025, showcasing how central AI has become to its shopping experience.

Walmart countered with Sparky, part of its broader shift toward AI-driven, agentic commerce. These moves don’t just signal innovation; they reset expectations across the industry.

Headlines focused on discounts, but the real story was how both giants used AI to redefine how customers interact with their stores, moving beyond utility to become a key part of the shopper experience.

Inside the Shift: Rufus, Sparky, and the AI Interface Playbook

Amazon and Walmart have both embraced a new model of shopping, centered around intelligent, conversational AI interfaces.

Rufus and Sparky mark a clear pivot from basic keyword-driven navigation to natural language, context-aware conversations. These assistants answer nuanced questions, recommend products, compare options, and distill reviews into useful insights, all in real time.

Crucially, these tools aren’t just layered on top. They’re baked into the shopping experience and viewed as strategic infrastructure. Their rollout during two of the biggest sales events of the year sent a clear message: AI shopping assistants are not just features. They're now central to revenue growth strategies.

This shift also mirrors broader behavior. Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity have normalized conversational interfaces. Consumers now expect real-time, AI-driven recommendations, everywhere they shop. Retail is playing catch-up.

What It Means: A New Set of Expectations for Everyone

The shift is accelerating. During Prime Day 2025, Adobe Analytics reported a 3,300% year-over-year increase in GenAI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites, far surpassing expectations. AI-powered tools like chatbots and GenAI browsers weren’t just helping consumers shop. They were actively reshaping how they entered and navigated the shopping journey.

AI-driven discovery, recommendations, and checkout are no longer premium features. They’re becoming the norm. As expectations rise, shoppers increasingly see static websites and generic chatbots as friction points.

If your storefront isn’t guiding, advising, or resolving in real time, it’s not competing.

This shift is part of a much bigger transformation: the rise of agentic commerce, a world where AI assistants are not only helping consumers shop but sometimes doing it for them.

Read our perspective: Agentic Commerce Is Here, and What To Do About It

Going further: What is agentic commerce? Definition, examples and why leaders must act now · What the AI storefront looks like, and why it converts better · Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025: why AI is the new playbook

How Retailers Can Now Match the Standard

Amazon and Walmart can afford to build proprietary AI assistants, but most brands can’t or shouldn’t.
iAdvize offers a faster path to the same outcome. With the iAdvize AI Shopping Assistant, brands can deploy a high-performing AI shopping assistant that’s already proven in the field, active on the storefronts of nearly 200 retailers, providing:

AI-powered shopping guidance at scale
Personalized assistance across the journey
Real-time engagement that drives conversions and lifts AOV

It’s not a chatbot. It’s part of the storefront. And it’s built to deliver the kind of conversational shopping experience that today’s consumers expect.

While the industry moves toward agentic commerce, iAdvize helps you get started now, without overhauling your tech stack, and up and running in just a few hours.

Key takeaways

The assistant is infrastructure, not a feature : both giants baked it into the shopping experience rather than layering it on top, and launched it during their biggest sales events of the year.

Conversational shopping is now the default expectation : ChatGPT and Perplexity normalized it, so shoppers expect real-time AI recommendations wherever they buy, not only on the two largest sites.

A storefront that does not guide is not competing : if the site cannot advise or resolve a question in real time, it loses ground whatever its catalogue and its discounts look like.

You do not have to build your own Rufus : most brands should not; deploying an assistant already live on nearly 200 storefronts takes hours rather than a build programme.

FAQ

What Rufus and Sparky changed, and what it means for retailers who are not Amazon or Walmart.

Rufus is Amazon's AI shopping assistant. Launched a year earlier, it was given major visibility during Prime Day 2025 to show how central AI has become to Amazon's shopping experience. It handles natural language, context-aware conversations: answering nuanced product questions, recommending items, comparing options and distilling reviews into useful insight, all in real time.
Sparky is Walmart's AI shopping assistant, launched as part of a broader shift toward AI-driven, agentic commerce. Like Rufus, it replaces keyword-driven navigation with conversation, and it is treated as strategic infrastructure inside the shopping experience rather than a feature layered on top of it.
Adobe Analytics reported a 3,300% year-over-year increase in GenAI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites during Prime Day 2025, far surpassing expectations. AI-powered tools and generative-AI browsers were not only helping consumers shop, they were reshaping how shoppers entered and navigated the journey in the first place.
By deploying one that already exists. Amazon and Walmart can afford proprietary assistants; most brands cannot and should not. The iAdvize AI Shopping Assistant is already active on the storefronts of nearly 200 retailers, provides shopping guidance at scale and personalized assistance across the journey, and goes live in a few hours without overhauling the tech stack.