Amazon Debuts AI Generator For Sellers To Craft ‘Engaging’ Product Backdrops

Image via About Amazon

Amazon’s relationship with artificial intelligence has been a rather rocky one. While the e-commerce giant has long heavily relied on AI for its success, the platform has been rampant with unwanted, offensive listings driven by the technology. Most recently, it became a hotbed of gibberish-filled, AI-written books, some of which ended up on its bestseller lists.

Still, there’s no denying AI’s role in underpinning the tech behemoth’s processes and services. Now, in the age of text-to-art tools, Amazon is adding the ability for advertisers to harness generative AI and dream up attention-grabbing backgrounds for products, as part of a beta rollout.

“Providing tools to make image generation simple and easy is another way for us to support advertisers while also making the ads our customers see more engaging and visually rich,” explains Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of Amazon Ads Products and Technology, in a new blog post. “It’s a perfect use for generative AI—less effort and better outcomes.”

Image via About Amazon

Sellers won’t need any technical expertise to be able to operate this easy-to-use tool. A simple text prompt is all that’s required to transform plain product photos into dynamic lifestyle scenarios that might better resonate with customers. Ultimately, this saves advertisers time and cost in coming up with multiple stylings for individual products, Amazon points out.

In one example, the AI model positions a toaster on various iterations of a kitchen counter, in the living room, and in front of a fireplace (an odd choice). It does about the same for a multicooker.

Users can instantly tell a richer story with preset themes like ‘pumpkin spice’, ‘rocky’, ‘metallic’, ‘forest’, ‘cottage’, ‘midcentury modern’, and ‘Christmas’, as demonstrated in Amazon’s announcement video.

Video screenshot via Amazon News

To access the feature, sellers can head over to the Amazon Ad Console, select their desired products, and click ‘Generate’.

Click-through rates for products can go up to 40% higher for product images with visual, lifestyle contexts, Amazon says, explaining that its decision to introduce generative AI powers to advertisers is “part art and part science.” As opposed to an isolated toaster, imagery with the appliance “on a kitchen counter, next to a croissant,” and so on tends to strike a chord with more online shoppers.

“At Amazon Ads, we are always thinking about ways we can reduce friction for our advertisers, provide them with tools that deliver more impact while minimizing effort, and ultimately, deliver a better advertising experience for our customers,” Aubrey details.

“With the launch of our image generation capability, any advertiser can now use a simple tool to create unique, lifestyle creative assets that make their campaigns more compelling, and at no additional cost.”

The background-churning tool has been made available to select advertisers, and Amazon says it will keep working on the feature in tandem with user feedback. The company intends to broaden access to the text-to-image generator in the near future.

[via Engadget, Venture Beat, About Amazon, images via About Amazon]