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Amazon and Walmart Raised the Bar. Here’s How Retailers Can Catch Up.
iAdvize
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
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 Copilot for Shoppers, 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.
Ready to bring AI-powered shopping to your storefront?
iAdvize Copilot helps you meet new shopper expectations today.
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