AI was everywhere at Amazon Ads unBoxed again this year. But this time, the conversation felt less like a preview of what might be possible and more like a look at how brands will work in the future. Tools teased last year are now live and Amazon is making it easier to build campaigns, create ads, and find answers in the data.
Our Director of Retail Media, Sam Griffin , came back with five things brands should watch. Some are ready to test now and others are worth preparing for before they go live.
1. Sponsored Brands is becoming a conversation starter
Amazon announced Branded Conversations, which will let shoppers click a prompt in a Sponsored Brands ad and continue into an AI shopping conversation. The experience can use product information supplied by the brand to help shoppers compare options and find the right fit. It is scheduled to launch for eligible U.S. Sponsored Brands collections campaigns in January 2027.
Our take: This was the sponsored ads announcement that most caught our attention. Sponsored Brands may become a more useful place to answer the questions shoppers have before they buy. We expect brands to take a fresh look at how much of their search budget goes there, though performance will have to earn that investment.
The preparation is straightforward: make sure you can explain who each product is for, what makes it different, and how it fits into the shopper’s life. Those answers are becoming campaign inputs.
2. Full-Funnel Campaigns could make a broader media plan easier to try
With Full-Funnel Campaigns, a brand can enter its products, budget, and goal, then let Amazon coordinate ads across sponsored placements, display, video, and streaming TV. It is currently in open beta for U.S. advertisers who sell on Amazon.
Amazon is also adding measures such as Long-Term Sales, which estimates the future sales value of new customer actions, and Accumulated Sales, which checks that estimate against actual sales as time passes.
Our take: This could give brands with smaller budgets a practical way to test media beyond sponsored search and we’re very interested in the measurement part. A campaign that looks less efficient on immediate sales may still be valuable if it brings in customers who keep buying. We’ll want to see how those estimates hold up in real campaigns.
3. Ads Agent is moving into everyday campaign work
Amazon Ads Agent can now help eligible advertisers plan media, manage and optimize campaigns, and explore performance through a conversation. The expanded experience is in closed beta, with capabilities continuing to roll out.
Our take: Time saved on routine campaign work is time a team can spend making better decisions. But we’d want clear approval points around changes that affect spend. Before handing an agent more responsibility, decide which actions it can recommend, which it can make, and how your team will review the results.
4. DVA+ puts more media into one campaign
DVA+ combines display, video, and audio buying in one workflow, with the option to open advanced settings for more control. It is currently in an extended closed beta in the U.S., with an open beta expected later in October.
Our take: Making these formats easier to buy could open up upper funnel media for more brands. The question we’ll keep asking is what the reporting helps us learn. Amazon says advertisers will have visibility by publisher, format, and geography. We’ll be looking for enough detail to make a confident call on what deserves more investment.
5. The brands that win will give AI something useful to work with
Here’s the theme we saw in all five announcements: more brands will have access to the same campaign tools. The quality of the direction they give those tools is where you need to be more strategic.
Our take: If your product pages could describe any brand in the category, an AI agent has little to work with. Give it specifics: the customer need you solve, the differences across your products, the questions shoppers ask, and the reasons people choose you. Then have people who know your business evaluate what the tools produce.
That’s where Sam sees the opportunity coming out of unBoxed. Amazon is making execution faster and more accessible. For brands, the next job is to get sharper about the strategy, product knowledge, and category expertise guiding it.