Amazon's AI Shopping Assistant Rufus Tests Sponsored Prompts -- Lower Traffic But More Cost-Effective Than Search Ads

Amazon is testing a format called 'sponsored prompts' inside its Rufus AI shopping assistant, and early results show the ads generate significantly lower traffic than traditional search advertisements but deliver better cost efficiency for the brands running them, The Information reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the program. Rufus is Amazon's conversational AI assistant embedded in its shopping app, designed to help customers research products and navigate purchasing decisions through natural language queries. Unlike the traditional Amazon search bar, where sponsored listings appear alongside keyword results, sponsored prompts in Rufus appear as AI-generated suggestions or follow-up questions that surface specific products or brands within a conversational flow. The lower traffic figures reflect the fundamental difference in how users interact with conversational AI versus keyword search: query volume in chat interfaces tends to be lower and more exploratory than in search, where users typically arrive with higher purchase intent. However, advertisers appear willing to accept lower volume in exchange for the more contextual placement and potentially higher engagement quality. The development is being watched closely by the advertising industry as a signal for how AI assistants will be monetized across platforms. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overview have all been experimenting with sponsored content within AI-generated responses, raising questions about disclosure, user experience, and click-through quality. Amazon has not publicly detailed the Rufus advertising product. The Information reported the early performance data on April 1, 2026.