As Prime Day begins, Amazon is rolling out Alexa+ Agentic Ads on Echo Show devices—an ad format designed to take customers from seeing an ad to completing a purchase entirely within an organic conversation, without leaving the ad. Amazon is starting with partn
Prime Day is here, and Amazon wants shoppers to do more than click.
On Echo Show devices. the retail giant is debuting Alexa+ Agentic Ads—ads that are built to carry people from “seeing an ad” to “finishing a purchase” inside a conversation. The pitch is simple. but the shift is big: customers wouldn’t have to leave the ad experience to order food or buy concert tickets. with questions. reviews. and decisions happening in the same flow.
Amazon says Alexa+ Agentic Ads is its first ad format that completes a purchase entirely within an organic conversation. Customers can also ask questions and review options without breaking away from the ad itself.
Charlotte Maines. Amazon’s VP of devices content and ads. framed the decision as a way to bring advertisers into high-intent moments—ones shoppers already experience every day through Alexa. “We already had this whole spectrum of experiences that customers are having outside of shopping. and I wanted to make sure advertisers could participate in these high-intent moments. ” Maines said.
Amazon is launching the format first with several brand partners: Papa Johns for food, and music artists Beck, Jill Scott, and Omar Courtz for concert tickets. The company expects to expand to more brands and services later.
The experience Amazon describes starts the moment a Prime member sees an ad on their device. If someone sees an ad for Jill Scott’s show. they can ask. “Hey. Alexa. I see this Jill Scott concert is coming up. Are there tickets available?” Alexa would then respond with options for the day and time at the nearest venue. After that, depending on how many tickets the customer wants, Alexa pulls up seating options across available sections.
Customers can request better sections and adjust the original offering. Once they find the right seats, they can purchase the tickets through Alexa. Amazon says the tickets will be available in the Ticketmaster account shortly after.
For food, Amazon’s script is similar—just faster, more direct. A customer can go to the Papa Johns ad and place an order directly. If they previously ordered through Alexa. Alexa can reference past conversations to include favorite toppings. while still allowing customers to change or customize the order if they want something different.
Maines emphasized that the ads are tied into back-end ordering systems and built around personalization and signals. “We’re integrated on the back end with third-party ordering systems and the pizza is on its way to you. so we’re tying it back to personalization and signals. ” she said. She added that over time Alexa can understand what a customer and their family wants on their pizza—so. for example. it could suggest their usual two large pizzas with one cheese and the other Hawaiian—and let them go from seeing the ad to having the pizza delivered “in a millisecond” based on what Alexa already knows.
Maines added that the goal is to keep evolving the experience for customers while helping advertisers stay more relevant. “That’s how we’re thinking about continuing to evolve the experience to both be better for customers and help advertisers be more relevant based on what we understand about them as a customer.”.
Alexa+ Agentic Ads is not replacing Amazon’s existing ad efforts so much as adding a new layer to them. The new format builds on Amazon’s other Alexa shopping prompts and formats. including Sponsored Ads. Sponsored Products. and Sponsored Brands prompts on Alexa for Shopping. as well as Conversational Ads on Alexa+.
Amazon also pointed to performance from earlier ad formats during Prime Day week last year. It said brands that used Sponsored Ads saw, on average, 30% more units sold globally as a result of their advertising activity.
Behind the scenes, Amazon is also marketing AI-powered tools aimed at making ad creation and campaign management easier. It offers Amazon Ads AI-powered tools to help advertisers create and launch full-funnel campaigns. including Creative Agent. which produces professional ads in just a few hours; Ads Agent. which cuts campaign setup and targeting from weeks to minutes; and the Amazon MCP server. which connects external AI agents to the Amazon Ads API via simple prompts that don’t require custom coding.
Kelly MacLean. VP of Amazon Ads. said last year ahead of the company’s annual unBoxed conference that the goal is reaching the right people with ads that drive business results—while offering a more streamlined process. “The goal for every brand is reaching the right people wherever they are and having compelling ads that drive those business results. ” MacLean told Fast Company last year. “But with our vast offerings, we’ve heard from customers that they also need a more streamlined process.”.
In other words, Amazon isn’t just selling deals this Prime Day. It’s trying to turn the shopping moment—already happening through voice—into a purchasing moment that happens without leaving the ad.
Amazon Prime Day Alexa Echo Show Alexa+ Agentic Ads Amazon Ads Papa Johns Ticketmaster sponsored ads conversational ads advertising technology AI agents