Amazon wants ChatGPT's users. It just doesn't want OpenAI to have its data.
Amazon has begun buying ads on ChatGPT, making the company one of the highest-profile retailers to appear in OpenAI's emerging advertising business, according to e-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukėnas.
The ads direct users back to Amazon's storefront, where the company controls the customer experience and transaction.
Kaziukėnas told Business Insider that Amazon's decision to buy ads on ChatGPT is "symbolic" because the retailer has largely avoided participating in AI shopping initiatives that let third-party chatbots and AI agents aggregate its products, pricing, and inventory data.
The move highlights a tension at the heart of Amazon's AI strategy. The company is willing to pay to reach ChatGPT's massive user base, but it continues to protect its own shopping data and limit how AI systems can access and use it.
Rather than helping AI platforms aggregate Amazon's catalog, the e-commerce giant is using them as marketing channels that send customers back to Amazon's online marketplace. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
Kaziukėnas initially shared a screenshot of Amazon's ad on ChatGPT through a Linkedin post on Monday. It showed the chatbot suggesting several products under a search for a coffee maker, followed by a sponsored Amazon ad promoting "Top-Rated Kitchen Gear."
Amazon has taken steps to restrict AI scraping and data collection efforts that could be used to build competing shopping experiences.
Last year, Amazon stopped providing product feeds to Google Shopping results while updating its code base to block multiple bots, including those from OpenAI, according to Kaziukėnas. Earlier this year, Amazon won a court order to block Perplexity's AI agent.
Amazon's arrival on ChatGPT could also be an encouraging sign for OpenAI's nascent advertising business. Early ad data has shown that ChatGPT users frequently encounter ads when making commercial-intent queries, and advertisers are increasingly viewing the chatbot as a new channel for reaching consumers who are actively researching products.
"To me, this is a sign that OpenAI will have an easier time monetizing shopping intent through ads than the still unproven agentic commerce, which it abandoned," said Kaziukėnas. "Its ads business will grow fast."
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