These new Amazon ads don’t just recommend products—they can make your purchases for you

As Prime Day kicks off today, Amazon is debuting Alexa+ Agentic Ads on its Echo Show devices. The move is part of the retail giant’s broader push to help shoppers discover new products and deals through agentic and conversational experiences.According to Amazon, Alexa+ Agentic Ads is the first ad format that takes customers from seeing an ad to completing a purchase entirely within an organic conversation without ever having to leave the ad, whether they’re ordering food or buying concert tickets. Customers will also be able to ask questions and review options all in the same conversation. People are already engaging with Alexa in their daily lives for everything from trip planning to making dinner reservations, but Charlotte Maines, VP of devices content and ads for Amazon, wanted to find ways for advertisers to become more involved in these moments. “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.To start, Amazon is launching Alexa+ Agentic Ads with several brand partners, including Papa Johns for food, and music artists Beck, Jill Scott, and Omar Courtz for concert tickets. The company expects to partner with more brands and services in the future.[Image: Amazon]Here’s how it works: Say a Prime member sees an ad on their device for Jill Scott’s show. They can say something like, “Hey, Alexa, I see this Jill Scott concert is coming up. Are there tickets available?” and Alexa will respond and present options for the day and time of the concert at the nearest venue. Depending on how many tickets the customer wants, Alexa will then pull up seating options in available sections. Customers can request better sections and make adjustments to the original offering, and once they find the perfect tickets they can purchase them through Alexa (the tickets will be available in their Ticketmaster account shortly after). If someon