Amazon’s AI shopping assistant is no longer a side experiment. On the October 29, 2026 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy told analysts that more than 400 million customers used Alexa for Shopping in the previous 12 months, interactions climbed 570% year over year, and US users spend 50% more per order than people who don’t use it.
Those are Amazon’s own numbers, shared without a published methodology. But for brands and sellers buying Amazon ads, the message is clear: the shelf is moving into the conversation.
What Amazon actually disclosed
Jassy’s comments came in prepared remarks, between pharmacy and advertising updates. He described Alexa for Shopping as an agent that researches products, compares options, checks a full year of price history, gives personalized gift recommendations, and tracks deals or price drops for shoppers.
The assistant itself is less than six months old under that name. Amazon merged Rufus and Alexa+ into Alexa for Shopping on May 13, 2026, so much of the 12-month user window predates the current product. Amazon did not clarify whether Rufus users are included in the 400 million figure or define what counts as an interaction.
Spend per order is Amazon’s latest framing. In July the company said Alexa for Shopping users spent over 40% more per order, without a country limit. The October claim narrows to US customers and rises to 50%. Amazon did not say whether the assistant causes bigger baskets or whether shoppers who already spend more are more likely to use it.
Why the way Amazon measures it matters
A year ago Amazon was talking about conversion. In Q3 2025 and again in February, it said Rufus users had a 60% higher purchase completion rate. Now the metric is average order value, and the comparison is users versus non-users. That tells you how users differ, not necessarily what the assistant changes.
There’s also a missing number: sales. When Alexa for Shopping launched, PPC Land reported that Rufus generated nearly $12 billion in incremental annualized sales in 2025. Jassy gave no comparable figure for Alexa for Shopping.
What this means for Amazon advertisers
The bigger story is where discovery happens. Amazon already sells Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands placements inside the assistant under existing cost-per-click bids. If Alexa for Shopping becomes, as Jassy put it, “the primary shopping agent customers use to shop Amazon,” the advertising equation shifts.
- An assistant answer names a handful of products, not a page of 50 results.
- Sponsored placements inside the conversation are bought through the same CPC auction.
- Brands that optimize only for search pages risk losing visibility as more shopping starts with a prompt.
Jassy also addressed outside AI agents, saying they are not meaningfully affecting Amazon Ads because few customers shop that way yet. That leaves room for change, and Amazon’s own assistant is not limited to Amazon: it can discover and buy from other retailers through Shop Direct.
What to do about it now
For performance marketers, this is a signal to treat conversational surfaces as search. Check where your products appear in Alexa for Shopping recommendations, monitor costs on sponsored prompts, and test how product pages support agent-friendly answers. If you wait until Amazon publishes methodology, competitors will already own the prompt.
Source: PPC Land
