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Amazon Ads study finds Indian SMBs accelerating use of AI-powered advertising tools
Amazon Ads study finds Indian SMBs are increasingly using AI advertising tools to access streaming TV, cross-border markets and new audiences. Adoption among Amazon advertisers rose 77% year over year, with businesses citing faster campaign optimisation, creative support and growth potential.
The numbers
Figures from ET Small Business,
| SMBs generated 62% more AI-assisted ad creatives in Q1 | 2026 year over year |
|---|---|
| Wider survey included 4,100 respondents across | 14 countries |
Also in the report
- Nearly 90% of surveyed Indian SMBs said AI advertising tools opened previously inaccessible channels, audiences or formats
- 75% said AI-enabled advertising supported business growth
- 68% said simplified AI tools improved creativity
- 92% said AI will be important to future competitiveness
- Survey covered 300 Indian SME B2C marketing decision-makers
Why it matters to operators and investors
The surge in AI-assisted creative production among Indian SMBs strengthens the case for partnerships or acquisitions in localized creative automation, campaign optimization, and SMB advertising enablement.
What to watch next
- Quarterly growth in active Amazon Ads advertisers in India and ad-revenue growth relative to GMV growth.
- Changes in CPCs, conversion rates and impression share for high-volume Indian retail categories.
- Adoption of Amazon video, display, DSP or regional-language formats by SMB advertisers.
- Evidence that AI-created creative raises incremental sales rather than merely increasing campaign volume.
- New Amazon Ads India features for automated campaign creation, multilingual generation, measurement or budget optimization.
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- Seller complaints about rising auction costs, low-quality AI creative, policy enforcement or attribution limitations.
Likely next moves
Our read of what comes next — analysis, not reported by the source.
- Amazon Ads is likely to bundle generative creative, audience recommendations and campaign automation more deeply into self-service workflows for Indian sellers.
- More SMBs will expand from search-led product ads into video, display and regional-language creative as production barriers fall.
- Large brands and established sellers will increase bidding discipline, use automation for faster testing and invest in stronger product-detail pages to defend conversion rates.
- Indian agencies and commerce-enablement firms will launch AI campaign-management packages, training and catalog-cleanup services aimed at SMBs.
- Competing retail-media and social-ad platforms will emphasize low-cost AI creative tools and easier onboarding to prevent advertiser budget migration toward Amazon.
The counter-case
The case against this reading — not reported by the source.
The reported growth may reflect Amazon’s own advertiser base adopting embedded tools rather than broad, durable AI transformation among Indian SMBs. A 77% increase from an undisclosed base can be immaterial in absolute terms, while 62% more AI-assisted creatives measures production volume—not incremental sales, profitability, or customer acquisition. Easier creative generation could also increase ad clutter, auction competition and CPMs, leaving SMBs spending more to maintain visibility.