Amazon began buying ads on ChatGPT, becoming one of the highest-profile retailers in OpenAI’s emerging ad business, with the placements steering users back to Amazon’s storefront where it controls the experience and transaction, according to e-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukėnas. Analysts call the move symbolic because Amazon has otherwise avoided AI shopping initiatives that let third-party chatbots aggregate its products, pricing, and inventory, stopping its Google Shopping feeds, blocking OpenAI and other bots, and winning a court order against Perplexity’s AI agent. The arrangement captures the tension in Amazon’s strategy, paying to reach ChatGPT’s user base while refusing to hand over the data that would let AI platforms build competing shopping experiences. Kaziukėnas reads it as a sign OpenAI will monetize shopping intent through ads faster than the agentic commerce it abandoned, predicting its ad business will grow fast.
