Key Insights: AI & Amazon From Roth Conference

Daniel Tejada is the co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of Straight Up Growth, a leading Amazon advertising agency for CPG & wellness brands. 

Amazon’s AI Evolution: Building the Infrastructure for Brands

Amazon has shown a continued interest in artificial intelligence, including committing $10b in investments into their generative AI research this year alone. Amazon currently offers generative AI capabilities through Amazon Connect, the AWS cloud contact center, to support contact center agents and end-customers.

Daniel sees Amazon’s approach as ‘building the racetrack, not the horse’ - meaning Amazon is building the infrastructure for brands to implement their tools, rather than building these tools themselves. One example of this is the introduction of AI image generators, allowing brands to create and incorporate AI-made content into their image stacks and storefronts. 

AI-Driven Insights: A New Era of Data-Backed Decisions

The other way Amazon can empower brands with generative AI is by offering more customer data collected with AI. These data-driven insights can help brands A/B test and easier understand how to best reach their customers.

• Amazon Connect Customer Profiles now provides a generative AI-powered customer data mapping capability that significantly reduces the time needed to create unified profiles, enabling companies to help provide more personalized customer experiences faster. 
• Amazon Connect Contact Lens: AI-powered real-time analytics and quality management tool that helps supervisors monitor call center performance and improve customer interactions.
• Amazon Bedrock is a fully managed service offering various high-performing foundation models (FMs) through a single API, along with tools to build generative AI applications securely and responsibly. 

Search Trends & TikTok’s Growing Influence

Amazon continues to dominate in product search, and it’s still the #1 new product search platform, with nearly 56% of all new product searches starting on Amazon. Although, some of their momentum has slowed from the introduction of other third-party marketplaces. Amazon is not concerned with the introduction of TikTok Shop, as many micro-influencers are still driving traffic to Amazon. 

According to Daniel, many brands saw a large lift in sales this Prime Day due to their collaborations with micro and nanoinfluencers. Many brands also take advantage of content made by these influencers for their product listings and storefronts. Straight Up Growth has not seen a decrease in sales due to TikTok Shop or see Tiktok Shop as a threat to Amazon growth. 

Final Thoughts: AI’s Role in Amazon’s Future Growth

Despite economic concerns about tariffs and lowering stock prices, Amazon’s AI-driven approach is keeping inflation manageable. 

From building AI-driven infrastructure for brands to leveraging data for smarter decision-making, the role of AI is expanding across content creation, logistics, and advertising. The rapid growth of AWS – fueled by AI innovation, signals a shift in Amazon’s priorities; while trends like TikTok’s influence on product discovery emphasize the evolving nature of consumer behavior. 

If you’re looking to leverage AI to optimize your Amazon advertising strategy, working with a partner like Straight Up Growth can help you stay ahead of the competition. Start with a full Amazon Audit to understand the biggest opportunities your brand is currently missing on Amazon!