Credit: Arda Kucukkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images
If you’re looking for drama in the retail and e-commerce industries right now, many insiders would point squarely to Amazon and the question of if and when it will ink shopping-related partnerships with the owners of AI apps like ChatGPT, including OpenAI.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has repeatedly told Wall Street analysts that he believes the company will eventually partner with at least some third-party platforms like ChatGPT once those AI-native companies improve the actual shopping experiences they offer users and, of course, once potential deal terms make sense.
At the same time, Jassy has been clear that a central focus of Amazon’s AI shopping strategy remains Rufus, the company’s own shopping assistant that operates across Amazon.com and the Amazon app. In its most recent earnings report, Amazon said Rufus powered $12 billion in incremental sales in 2025. (Yes, plenty of reasonable people have questioned the methodology behind that figure. No, Amazon has not explained it publicly.)
But Rufus is still very much a work in progress, as underscored by the “Beta” badge Amazon continues to display next to its name. And according to people briefed on recent discussions who spoke to The Aisle, Amazon has been in talks with OpenAI about whether AI could be used not just to answer product questions, but to shape what ultimately ends up in a shopper’s cart.
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