My Game Reviews

Neobanks: The Revival of the Banking Industry

According to the definition online, a Neobank is an information technology that offers digital banking services.

The Neobank is an evolution in the online banking space. When the internet became more mainstream in the 1990s, established banks were the first to start offering online services.

However, after the crisis of 2008, there arose a new type of bank, the Neobank. Such banks are no longer reliant on a hybrid model of having brick and mortar stores as well as an online presence.

These banks serve a different customer base vs that of the more established banks. The more established banks tended to be for people who had more established wealth. Namely, the Whites in America, especially the upper middle and upper classes. While there were people from every background at these banks, this was still a stuffy industry that tended to have most appeal to people who had experience with banking systems. These were people who had lived in urban and suburban areas and already had been maintaining their wealth.

Neobanks served the underbanked online. Without relying on brick-and-mortar stores, banking has truly become a virtual endeavor now.

Chime is a Neobank which just went on the stock market. It joins other banks such as Varo and Revolut. These banks have differing features but they all are about serving underserved communities.

I think that this industry has alot of room for growth. The banking sector has been established by now but it needs some new competition that truly embraces the internet for what it is.

How to search and buy effectively with Amazon Rufus

Introduction: Amazon Rufus, the Shopping AI.

Amazon has generally been a pretty straight forward website. It is a place where you buy things or if you are a seller, sell your items on the Amazon storefront similar to eBay. Unlike many other dotcom businesses in the 1990s, Jeff Bezos had a vision and a sustainable business model. However, this does not mean that Amazon is lying on its laurels and has been continuing to innovate in many areas.

Amazon’s Rufus is named after a dog who was in Amazon’s office in the early days. It’s function is very much like a digital golden retriever: it seeks out information about the items you want to buy on the site.

Rufus is available on desktop as well as the mobile app. On the desktop site, Rufus is located on the upper left side of the screen.

How to search with Amazon Rufus Chatbot.

To start, you need to start typing something into the Amazon search box.

When you type in something into the Amazon, Rufus will analyze it and it will provide relevant questions.

When you click on the question bubbles, Rufus will provide answers to your questions here. It combines ChatGPT with the Amazon customer review system which helps to create a unique AI.

I chose a Runic Ring to buy, the first result on the page.

When you click on the link to the product page, Amazon has now integrated Rufus into many aspects of the site.

One of the best aspects of Amazon’s AI integration is that it is holistic. Unlike the older versions of chatbots that would you see before ChatGPT, companies such as Amazon are integrating throughout the site. It is not an annoyance on the side bar; it now greatly enhances your ability to shop on Amazon and save time instead of spending it on the annoying search engine in Amazon.

Amazon’s s Rufus is much better than Google’s AI overview as it curates the Amazon customer review system in order to provide better responses.

Amazon smartly chooses to have Rufus located throughout the page for each product that you click on the site. While it may seem overbearing for some, this approach means that Amazon is not just treating like a feature that is being hidden away on the screen. In many ways, Amazon is the prefect site for such implementation of Shopping chatbots.