Amazon turns advertising into an AI-powered planning business

Amazon is taking another step toward automating digital advertising after unveiling new AI tools designed to help brands plan campaigns, manage media buying and analyse performance.

The company presented Amazon Ads Agent and DVA+ at its unBoxed 2026 event, positioning AI as a tool that can work across more stages of the advertising process rather than simply generating copy or images.

The development reflects a major change in the advertising industry.

For years, marketers have used separate platforms for planning, buying media, creating campaigns and measuring results. Generative and agentic AI can increasingly connect these functions.

An advertiser could theoretically provide a business objective and allow an AI system to analyse audiences, identify suitable inventory, build a campaign and monitor its performance.

That does not eliminate the role of marketers, but it changes where human expertise is required.

Instead of spending large amounts of time on repetitive campaign management, advertising teams can focus more heavily on strategy, creative direction and brand positioning.

Amazon has a particularly strong position in this transformation because it combines advertising technology with enormous amounts of retail data.

The company can connect advertising activity with shopping behaviour, product searches and purchases, giving brands information that many traditional advertising platforms cannot provide at the same level.

This also creates a competitive challenge for agencies.

Advertising agencies have traditionally been paid for media planning, creative development and campaign management. If AI automates parts of these services, agencies will need to demonstrate additional value through strategy, creativity, brand knowledge and customer insight.

The development also highlights the importance of transparency. Automated media buying can become difficult for marketers to understand when algorithms make decisions across thousands of advertising placements.

The next stage of digital advertising is therefore likely to involve a combination of human oversight and increasingly autonomous technology.

Amazon’s move shows that agentic AI is moving from experimentation toward the operational core of advertising.

Sources: Campaign India, Amazon Ads, Amazon unBoxed 2026.