Amazon Advertising has been nominated for the 2026 World AI Awards in the Ad Targeting category, recognising its work in applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to digital advertising, audience prediction and campaign optimisation.
The nomination comes as advertisers face a familiar problem with growing complexity: reaching people who may actually be interested in their products without wasting budgets on irrelevant impressions.
The World AI Awards recognises organisations, individuals, products and technologies contributing to the development and real-world application of artificial intelligence across industries.
For Amazon Advertising, the opportunity lies in combining shopping signals, predictive models and automated advertising tools. Its technology helps brands identify relevant audiences, manage campaigns and assess performance across Amazon properties and third-party websites.
AI predicts which shoppers are more likely to convert
One of Amazon Advertising’s most significant developments is Performance+, an AI-powered campaign solution within Amazon DSP.
Rather than relying entirely on predefined audience segments, Performance+ analyses shopping behaviour, advertiser conversion signals and other available information to predict which advertising opportunities are more likely to produce results.
The system uses machine learning to evaluate potential impressions and adjust targeting decisions as campaigns progress.
Amazon says advertisers using Performance+ can simplify campaign creation while retaining control over important settings, including budgets, targeting exclusions and performance objectives.
In company-reported analysis, Amazon identified a potential 51% improvement in a cost-per-acquisition performance measure compared with legacy Amazon DSP campaigns for a defined group of US and Canadian advertisers. The result should not be interpreted as a guaranteed improvement for every campaign.
From search keywords to intelligent product discovery
Amazon Advertising’s AI capabilities also extend to Sponsored Products, one of its established advertising formats.
Automatic targeting allows advertisers to promote products without manually selecting every relevant search term or competing product.
The system matches advertisements with shopping queries and product pages using information such as product descriptions and previous shopping activity.
A seller promoting a coffee machine, for example, may reach customers searching for similar appliances or browsing related products.
Amazon offers several automatic targeting approaches, including close matches, loose matches, substitutes and complementary products.
In May 2026, the company also introduced AI-powered Sponsored Brands collections, allowing advertisers to automatically group relevant products within a single advertisement based on shopping signals and campaign objectives.
The practical benefit is straightforward. Advertisers can spend less time manually organising product combinations while allowing automated systems to respond to changing customer interests.
Amazon brings AI targeting beyond its own marketplace
Amazon Advertising is expanding its targeting technology across the wider digital advertising ecosystem.
In February 2026, the company introduced enhanced targeting capabilities for display, video and audio campaigns, combining behavioural and contextual signals through AI-powered optimisation.
The new approaches include product targeting and in-market categories, helping advertisers identify audiences based on product interests and purchasing intent.
The development builds on Amazon DSP’s multi-signal keyword targeting, introduced in November 2025.
Instead of using keywords only to identify relevant website content, advertisers can combine contextual information with Amazon’s shopping signals.
This allows campaigns to consider both what people are viewing and what available behavioural information suggests about their interests.
Making advanced audience targeting easier to manage
Artificial intelligence is also changing how advertisers build audience segments.
Through Amazon Marketing Cloud, Amazon introduced an AI-powered audience query generator in July 2025.
The feature allows users to describe an audience in ordinary language and generate SQL queries without writing the entire query manually.
For marketing teams working with complex datasets, this can reduce the technical effort involved in audience creation.
It does not eliminate the need for campaign planning or performance evaluation. Advertisers still need to assess whether their audience definitions, targeting choices and results support their business objectives.
Taken together, these developments show how Amazon Advertising is moving AI into multiple stages of campaign management, from audience discovery and targeting to optimisation and measurement.
World AI Awards recognises advances in intelligent advertising
Graham Cooke, President of the World AI Awards, said:
“Amazon Advertising’s nomination highlights the growing role of artificial intelligence in digital advertising, where understanding audience intent and improving campaign relevance have become increasingly important.
“From predictive audience modelling and automated targeting to AI-powered campaign optimisation, Amazon Advertising demonstrates how intelligent technologies can help businesses make more informed marketing decisions and connect with relevant customers. We congratulate the Amazon Advertising team on its 2026 World AI Awards nomination and look forward to following the continued development of these technologies.”
Amazon Advertising joins organisations, researchers, entrepreneurs and technology developers being recognised through the 2026 World AI Awards.
The programme celebrates contributions to artificial intelligence across industries, including advertising, marketing, healthcare, finance, manufacturing and aerospace.
Amazon Advertising’s nomination in the Ad Targeting category reflects a wider change in digital marketing. AI is increasingly influencing how advertisers select audiences, allocate budgets and evaluate opportunities, rather than simply automating repetitive campaign tasks.
For businesses, the value will ultimately depend on measurable results, appropriate data practices and whether automated decisions improve campaign performance.
Learn more about Amazon Advertising and its AI-powered advertising solutions at https://advertising.amazon.com/.
Discover the World AI Awards 2026, explore the nominees and learn more about the awards at https://www.worldawards.ai/.
