Amazon Upfront Australia 2026: Agentic AI, Ads Agent & the MCP Server

The Ads Can Run Themselves. The Strategy Still Can't.

We were at Amazon Upfront in Australia this week, and if one theme ran through the room, it was agentic AI. Amazon used the stage to make its direction clear: advertising is becoming more automated, more connected, and a good deal easier to manage. The tools it showcased are genuinely impressive. But the more Amazon hands over to the machine, the sharper the question becomes for brands: what exactly are you asking it to do, and why?

Here's what stood out, and where the real advantage sits.

Agentic AI moves from concept to campaign

For the past year, "agentic AI" has mostly been a keynote word. At Upfront, it turned into something you can actually run a campaign with. Amazon's pitch is that the mechanics of advertising, the building, the optimising, the reporting, should stop being manual work and start being a conversation. And in Australia, that shift is now live rather than theoretical.

Ads Agent: DSP in plain English

Ads Agent is now helping Australian self-service advertisers build, optimise and analyse Amazon DSP campaigns using natural language and Amazon's first-party insights. In practice, that means describing what you want in a sentence rather than clicking through the console, with Amazon's own signals doing the heavy lifting on targeting and optimisation.

For advertisers who have found DSP intimidating, that is a real lowering of the barrier. The platform's complexity has long been part of the reason brands leave DSP budget on the table. Take the friction out of the interface and more brands will at least get in the door.

The Ads MCP Server: Amazon Ads meets ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini

The announcement with the longest tail was the Amazon Ads MCP Server, now in open beta in Australia. It lets AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini connect directly to Amazon Ads functionality, so you can create campaigns, pull reporting and manage accounts through the AI assistant you already use.

This matters more than it might first appear. It signals a world where Amazon Ads isn't a destination you log into, but a capability you call on from wherever you happen to be working. For simpler campaigns, getting live and staying on top of them could become dramatically easier. Reporting that used to mean exporting and reformatting becomes a question you type.

The catch is the one that always applies when execution gets cheaper: doing something quickly is not the same as doing the right thing.

Where AI stops and strategy starts

This is the line every brand needs to hold. AI can now handle execution, optimisation and analysis extremely well. What it cannot do is decide what to run, understand why it should be run, and see how it fits into the wider customer journey.

For a straightforward campaign, natural-language tools will get you a long way. For a full-funnel strategy, the kind that connects upper-funnel awareness on Prime Video to Sponsored Products at the point of purchase, and reads the interplay between creative, media and retail readiness, that judgement is where experienced teams earn their place. Knowing which lever to pull, in what order, and what to expect from it is a strategic act, not a prompt.

Put simply: the agent is very good at answering the question. Someone still has to ask the right one.

Dynamic TV Creative: the personalisation moves to the ad itself

The AI story didn't stop at management. Amazon also previewed Dynamic TV Creative, which uses AI and Amazon signals to personalise Prime Video ads based on the viewer. That takes personalisation out of targeting alone and puts it into the creative frame, so the same placement can flex to who is watching.

For brands, this is a nudge to stop thinking of TV creative as one fixed asset. The most effective Prime Video advertising is heading towards adaptable creative built to be recombined, not a single hero spot sent out to everyone.

Beyond AI: reach and the audio land grab

Away from the agentic headlines, the reach story is quietly just as important. Prime Video has now passed more than 5.5 million monthly ad-supported viewers in Australia, giving Amazon serious premium video scale in the market.

Amazon DSP is also expanding its audio offering across radio, podcasts and streaming audio, broadening the channels a brand can reach through a single buying platform. And the ecosystem keeps widening: Spotify and Netflix are becoming increasingly integrated into Amazon Ads, which pulls more premium supply into Amazon's identity and measurement graph.

The through-line is consolidation. Amazon is positioning DSP as the place you plan and buy across video, audio and now some of the biggest names in streaming, all against its first-party data. For brands, that is both an opportunity and a reason to think carefully about where budget concentrates.

What this means as we head towards 2027

Take the announcements together and the direction is unmistakable. Execution is getting easier and more automated. Buying is getting more connected across premium video and audio. Creative is getting more personalised at the moment of delivery.

The brands that benefit most won't be the ones that simply adopt the tools fastest. They'll be the ones that use the time these tools free up to think harder about strategy, and that pair the speed of AI execution with the judgement to point it in the right direction. Plenty to take away from this one, and plenty to keep an eye on as 2027 comes into view.

FAQ

• What is the Amazon Ads MCP Server?
  It's a connection layer, in open beta in Australia, that lets AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini interact directly with Amazon Ads. Advertisers can create campaigns, pull reporting and manage accounts through the AI tool they already use, rather than working solely inside the Amazon console.
• What can Amazon Ads Agent do?
  Ads Agent helps Australian self-service advertisers build, optimise and analyse Amazon DSP campaigns using natural language, drawing on Amazon's first-party insights to guide targeting and optimisation.
• Does agentic AI replace the need for an Amazon agency?
  No. AI is strong on execution, optimisation and analysis. Deciding what to run, why, and how it fits the wider customer journey still relies on experienced strategy, particularly for full-funnel campaigns spanning video, audio and retail media.
• How big is Prime Video advertising in Australia?
  Amazon reported that Prime Video has passed 5.5 million monthly ad-supported viewers in Australia, alongside a growing DSP audio offering across radio, podcasts and streaming, and deeper integration with Spotify and Netflix.

Thinking about full-funnel on Amazon?

AI can run the campaign. The strategy behind it is where growth is won or lost. If you want a partner that pairs the speed of these new tools with the judgement to use them well, talk to the Toucan team.