How Amazon’s in-house agency is using AI in the creative process

Amazon’s customer reviews have always been a wealth of information—for both brands promoting their wares and consumers looking to buy products. But the Seattle-based e-commerce giant took its reviews to a new marketing level with its recent holiday campaign. Recognizing the comedic potential of mining customer feedback for an advertising push, Amazon released “5-Star Theater,” in which actor Adam Driver performed a dramatic reading of “Real Amazon Customer Reviews.” See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here The lauded effort, which included such gems as one reviewer’s suggestion of using a Dutch oven for their ashes and another’s likening a life-changing banana slicer to the invention of the wheel or penicillin, was the brainchild of Amazon’s in-house creative team. Founded in 2015, the group is called Amazon’s cross-channel, cross-category marketing team, or XCM. Last year, the XCM team created 55,000 pieces of content for brand campaigns, events and other marketing efforts. Such work—which includes the reviews holiday campaign, a push with Megan Thee Stallion for Amazon Prime Day and marketing supporting Amazon One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy—has contributed to Amazon’s brand standing with shoppers. Indeed, Amazon stated it has seen nearly a 400% increase in brand value according to Interbrand rankings, rising to the third most valuable brand from the 14th a decade ago. While Amazon operates in a hybrid model in which external agencies are tapped for certain larger projects, the nimbleness of the in-house team sets it apart. For example, the Driver work involved the shooting of 21 reviews in a single day. In order to comb through reviews, the team turned to AI. One of the in-house creatives invented a tool that used AI prompts to mine Amazon’s plethora of reviews to find the most creatively compelling—and humorous—for Driver to read. Jo Shoesmith, VP and global chief creative officer at Amazon, noted that the company receives a lot of customer reviews but has been challenged by finding the most creative. Shoesmith, who has worked in-house at the brand for five years, noted the prospect of tapping AI tools in similar ways in the future. “There’s a lot of talk about using AI for the execution stage of the process, but we’ve challenged ourselves to look at all the ways AI can be leveraged throughout creative development,” she said. In July, Amazon’s internal team created “It’s Prime Day,” an original song and accompanying music video with Megan Thee Stallion, to promote its twice-annual shopping event. The video ran on Amazon’s channels and included social content and a shoppable storefront featuring certain deals based on Megan’s favorites. Event awareness increased 18 percentage points after the campaign, which also resulted in positive sentiment on social media, according to the company. By having an internal agency aware of all projects and possibilities, Amazon can put together “more compelling” brand propositions for partners such as Megan Thee Stallion, Shoesmith said. She added that her group works across the organization to put together deals for partners and look at talent differently, noting that Megan has a swim line on Amazon. The growing trend of in-house agencies at brands has helped with recruiting for Amazon, Shoesmith said. For example, the retailer is now able to attract talent just out of college because of the strength of its work, when previously such creatives may have gone to work at an agency. “We continue to hold ourselves to a really high creative bar,” she said. See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here

How Amazon’s in-house agency is using AI in the creative process

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