Amazon’s new agentic AI will plan and create an entire ad campaign
Scary fast: Amazon's chatbot generated video ads are aimed at SMEs
Amazon has integrated the agentic AI tools for video, audio and image generation from its Creative Studio suite into its advertising platform, allowing its sellers to hand over the creative and planning aspects of an entire campaign to artificial intelligence.
This is part of a sweeping set of changes being made to Amazon’s Seller Assistant platform, a generative AI interface which was introduced last year to aid Amazon sellers with answers to questions, and useful resources.
The changes means that small and medium-sized business can create and place video ads across Amazon’s growing ad network — including on external networks such as Netflix, Roku and Disney+.
Amazon is already an ad giant, with ad services revenue growing 23% year-on-year in its last reported quarter, and annualised revenue of A$90-$100 billion.
The platform is being bolstered with agentic AI capabilities — which, Amazon claims in its announcement release overnight, “allows AI to not just respond, but to reason, plan, and help take action with a seller’s permission.”
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Seller Assistant will be able to “handle everything from routine operations to complex business strategy, so sellers can focus on innovation and growth.” These changes will be rolled out over the next few months, and will be available to all sellers, for free. Mumbrella has reached out to Amazon Australia for timing on a local release.
Most relevant to the creative advertising world is the ability for Seller Assistant to “develop professional-quality ads through simple conversational prompts, transforming what was a weeks-long process into just hours.”
The AI gets involved in the brainstorming stage, and dabbles in some marketing science to boot.
“By analysing a seller’s products alongside Amazon’s shopping signals, Creative Studio’s AI feature generates tailored ad concepts and thoroughly explains its reasoning, giving sellers complete control while revealing new insights.”
Amazon uses an example of a real company — Bird Buddy — that sells smart bird feeders and wanted to create an ad for Father’s Day, targeted at people shopping for the holiday.
“They used the AI-powered tool in Creative Studio to design and build a Sponsored Video ad—just in time for the holiday. The results were an astounding 338% increase in ad click-through-rate versus all other active Sponsored Video ads they were running, 89% new-to-brand offers, and 121% return on ad spend.”
The limitations of the software are evident in the thumbnail still in the video above: the bird’s foot is disturbingly elongated. The video itself includes footage that is obviously generated.
Its not just the creatives that Amazon’s Seller Assistant is coming for.
Amazon says it can analyse sales patterns and customer behaviour to suggest new product categories and variants. It will “proactively develop comprehensive growth plans for sellers” and “guide international expansion.”
It can also highlight seasonal sales peaks, meld historical data with current trends, and develop a marketing plan for a company’s top-selling products.
“It coordinates everything from promotions and inventory adjustments to marketing launches.”
Seller Assistant wants to do more than just assist – it wants to run your business
Amazon wants the assistant to have its (metaphorical) fingerprints across the entire business.
In addition to the advertising creative, and marketing strategies, it will handle inventory management, including “proactively flagging slow-moving products before they incur long-term storage fees”; and coordinate drop-shipping between FBA fulfillment centers and Amazon’s warehouses and drivers to ensure the quickest, cheapest delivery.
It will also flag and explain regulatory and safety concerns around any products for sale that may require extra warnings or be illegal in certain territories, and handle compliance documentation for electrical products.
Your warehouse manager
Amazon says more is coming.
“As our agentic AI capabilities evolve, they will integrate more seamlessly across the entire selling experience.
“This evolution will help sellers spend more time focusing on product innovation and customer relationships while Seller Assistant handles making selling in Amazon’s store more efficient, strategic, and successful.”
A final warning shot: “Seller Assistant will get even more capable over time, as we learn more about what sellers want and how we can help them continue to grow and thrive.”
