What: Amazon says more than 400 million customers have used Alexa for Shopping in the last 12 months, up from 350 million at the end of July, and that users spend 50% more than non-users.

Why it is important: Amazon is leaning on its AI assistant as a growth lever at a time when its e-commerce segments are slowing.

On its fiscal third-quarter call, Amazon reported net sales of $201.9 billion, up 12%, with AWS up 39%. E-commerce segments slowed. Online Stores revenue rose 2%, against 10% a year earlier, third-party seller services rose 9%, against 12%, and advertising services rose 11%, against 24%. Much of the slowdown reflects Prime Day moving from mid-July to the end of June, which shifted its sales into the second quarter.

Amazon released the assistant as Rufus in February 2024 and rebranded it Alexa for Shopping in May 2026. Ahead of the holidays it announced more than 100 new capabilities, including creating and editing gift lists and registries and managing Subscribe and Save, such as pausing or canceling certain subscriptions.

Amazon has blocked ChatGPT and Meta's Muse shopping agent from scraping its site. CEO Andy Jassy hinted that this may eventually change, as he has said before, and said Amazon anticipates working with horizontal agents. He also said he believes Alexa for Shopping will be the primary shopping agent customers use to shop Amazon.

IADS Notes: Amazon introduced Rufus in beta to select US customers in February 2024, with Andy Jassy pointing to its potential to improve discovery (Retail Dive, February 2024). Users of Macy's Gemini-powered assistant spend nearly 400% more than non-users (Fortune, March 2026). Amazon restricted more of ChatGPT's web crawlers while investing in its own tools such as "Buy For Me" (Digiday, November 2025). Other large etailers are also blocking agent shoppers, while consumers mostly use AI for research between discovery and checkout rather than for the final purchase (a16z, October 2026).

Amazon says more than 400M customers have used Alexa for Shopping in the last 12 months