Amazon Ads study finds Indian SMBs accelerating use of AI-powered advertising tools
Nearly 90% of surveyed Indian SMBs said AI advertising unlocked previously inaccessible channels, audiences or formats. Amazon advertisers using AI tools in India grew 77% year over year, while SMBs generated 62% more AI-assisted creatives in Q1 2026.
What happened
Amazon Ads study finds Indian SMBs are increasingly using AI advertising tools to access streaming TV, cross-border markets and new audiences. Adoption among
Key facts
- 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
- Amazon advertisers using AI-powered tools in India grew 77% year over year
- SMBs generated 62% more AI-assisted ad creatives in Q1 2026 year over year
- 92% said AI will be important to future competitiveness
- Survey covered 300 Indian SME B2C marketing decision-makers
- Wider survey included 4,100 respondents across 14 countries
Why this matters
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
- 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.
- Seller complaints about rising auction costs, low-quality AI creative, policy enforcement or attribution limitations.
- 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.