Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has indicated that the company is exploring opportunities to integrate advertising into conversations with its AI-powered digital assistant, Alexa+. During Amazon’s second-quarter earnings call, Jassy highlighted the potential for advertising to play a role in helping users discover products and driving revenue within Alexa+.
“People are excited about the devices that they can buy from us that has Alexa+ enabled in it. People do a lot of shopping [with Alexa+]; it’s a delightful shopping experience that will keep getting better,” Jassy stated. “I think over time, there will be opportunities, as people are engaging in more multi-turn conversations, to have advertising play a role to help people find discovery, and also as a lever to drive revenue.”
Amazon has already rolled out Alexa+ to millions of customers as an upgrade to the legacy Alexa, aiming to provide more agentic behaviors and a more natural conversational experience. This move is seen as Amazon’s response to the rise of generative AI voice assistants from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity. Currently, Alexa+ is offered free to Amazon Prime customers (who pay $14.99 a month) and is also available as a standalone subscription for $20 per month. Jassy suggested the possibility of future subscription tiers for Alexa+, potentially including an ad-free option.
To date, advertising on Alexa has been limited to visual ads on Echo Show devices and pre-recorded ads on smart speakers. Jassy’s vision involves AI-generated ads delivered by Alexa+ during multi-step conversations, which could help users discover new products. This approach represents a new frontier for Amazon and the tech industry.
Amazon’s competitors in the AI space are also considering advertising as a viable business model. Google is exploring incorporating ads into its AI-powered search experience, known as AI mode. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed openness to “tasteful” advertising in ChatGPT.
Amazon is making significant investments in AI development. In the second quarter of 2025, the company’s capital expenditures increased by 90% to $31.4 billion, largely driven by the development of in-house AI chips and the expansion of data centers to support AI models. While Amazon’s cloud business, AWS, experienced 18% growth in the second quarter, the company is seeking new revenue streams to offset these investments.
Jassy anticipates that increased user engagement with Alexa+ compared to the traditional Alexa will lead to more advertising opportunities and increased shopping on Amazon.com. However, initial reviews of Alexa+ have been mixed, and the rollout has faced challenges. One potential concern is the issue of Alexa+ hallucinations, a common problem with AI models. Amazon may need to implement safeguards to prevent the AI from providing false advertising for products before advertisers are willing to use Alexa+ as a spokesperson.
Amazon’s advertising revenue increased by 22% in the second quarter, indicating Jassy’s enthusiasm for expanding the company’s advertising business. The integration of ads into AI chatbot conversations may raise privacy concerns. Generative AI chatbots tend to collect more information on users compared to traditional assistants like Alexa and Siri. Some users may be uncomfortable with this information being used for advertising purposes and with the appearance of ads in their natural language conversations with AI.
Delivering ads in AI chatbot conversations may also raise privacy concerns. People tend to talk more with AI chatbots compared to deterministic assistants, like the traditional Alexa and Siri products. As a result, generative AI chatbots tend to collect more information on users. Some users might be unsettled by having that information sold to advertisers and having ads appear in their natural language conversations with AI.
