Interactive display ads now let users ask product questions. Amazon brings AI-driven prompts to publisher sites. New ad formats aim to boost engagement and conversions.
Amazon has launched a new wave of AI-powered display ads that allow users to interact directly with products across the open web, a move that could reshape how publishers and advertisers engage audiences and drive conversions. The rollout, announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, brings conversational prompts-previously limited to Amazon’s own properties-to major publisher sites such as The New York Times.
These display ads use large language models to embed clickable questions within the creative, inviting users to ask for more details about featured products. According to Fabrice Rousseau, director of creative experiences at Amazon, the company leverages data from Amazon.com and its shopping app to identify the most relevant questions shoppers typically ask. Instead of relying on traditional keyword targeting, the ads now feature these questions as calls to action, personalizing the experience based on what Amazon knows about each consumer.
Amazon reports that 20% of shoppers who engage with a prompt continue the conversation, and 70% of those users are new to the brand. The prompts are dynamically generated for each user, drawing from product detail pages, brand store content, and campaign data. When a user taps a prompt, they are taken into a conversational experience with Alexa for Shopping, where they can explore the product further, ask follow-up questions, or make a purchase. The experience persists even if the user leaves and later returns to the browser.
The new format, called "responsive e-commerce creative (REC)," can automatically generate prompts for "Sponsored Products" and "Sponsored Brands" using product images and deliver them across the open internet. For example, a display ad for shampoo might include questions like "What hair types is this best for?" or "How long does one bottle typically last?" The ads are sold on a CPM basis, and Amazon says advertisers who opt in to AI automation see a 14% clickthrough rate. Additional features include agentic capabilities, such as alerting shoppers when a product’s price drops, allowing users to set a price and reengage when it meets their criteria.
Amazon’s move comes as publishers and ad tech companies increasingly experiment with AI-driven ad formats to capture user intent and boost engagement. For comparison, several major publishers have recently adopted AI-powered Q&A ad formats to keep users on-site and provide direct answers, as detailed in this report on new AI search and ad technology deployments.
Amazon, founded in 1994, is one of the world’s largest technology companies, with over 1.6 million employees globally as of 2026. Its advertising business has become a major revenue driver, generating more than $45 billion in annual ad sales, and continues to expand its reach beyond Amazon-owned platforms into the broader digital advertising ecosystem.
