The news: Amazon announced a slew of ad updates at its annual Unboxed event, including agentic AI tools primed for campaign planning, targeting, and creative development.

The company is positioning the tools as aids for advertisers that lack agency support rather than as a replacement for agencies, per Digiday.

Amazon is tightening its grip on the ad workflow, potentially pulling spend from Google and Meta while making its platform more indispensable to brands.

The details: New tools include Ads Agent, which is designed for campaign planning and data analysis, and Creative Agent. Both work through a conversational interface, letting users upload media plans, develop campaigns, and shape targeting strategies—all from a single workspace rather than requiring toggling between tools or tabs.

• Ads Agent: Manages targeting across channels, identifies priority audiences, recommends budgets, and generates Amazon Marketing Cloud Insights.
• Creative Agent: Conducts market research and functions as a creative director by developing concepts then using genAI models to produce assets. This tool draws from Amazon’s behavioral and contextual data, per Digiday.

These are separate from the agentic AI capabilities offered through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Why it matters: The tools could benefit small and large firms alike as well as help the ecommerce giant position itself as a full-service ad solution—if it can help advertisers without alienating agencies.

• For smaller advertisers: It could lower creative and analytical barriers, letting advertisers build campaigns with Amazon’s first-party insights without external data tools.
• For larger brands: The agents could streamline testing, interaction, and optimization within Amazon’s ecosystem, even if most brands continue to keep creative oversight with agencies or internal departments.

The caveat: Most major enterprise platforms—Salesforce, Oracle, Google, and Microsoft, to name a few—are deploying agentic AI tools to help users speed up media planning and workflows. For users not already cemented on Amazon’s platform, these features could seem redundant and likely won’t sway them from their existing providers.

What brands should do: Agency-free brands should experiment with the tools while keeping in mind that human insights and oversight are key to responsible, effective campaign deployment. Ensure that the use of genAI content in ads is disclosed to maintain user trust, and check that market research and concept generation match with brand voice and reputation.