Amazon launches AI product image generator to help suppliers enhance advertising effectiveness

Despite facing federal antitrust charges against its online marketplace and advertising, Amazon continues to launch new features for the market and third-party vendors selling products and ads through the market.

In a post by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on the social network X, Amazon announced a new generative AI feature that allows vendors to upload photos of their products to Amazon's advertising console service and then add backgrounds generated by AI.

How the new Amazon AI product image generator works

Amazon explained this feature in a blog post: "For example, an advertiser may have some products with independent images against a white background, such as a toaster. When the same toaster is placed in a lifestyle background, such as on a kitchen countertop with croissants next to it, the click-through rate for the 'sponsored brand ad' is 40% higher than the standard product image ad."

In the promotional video showcasing this new feature, users first need to navigate to the advertising console, where they can create new ads for products sold through Amazon. They then enter at least three (or more) product ASINs in a text box under "input list" and click "add."

These products will then be displayed on the screen for the user. Clicking the button labeled "enter creative" will guide the user to a screen that allows them to "customize the image" and enter prompt text in the field labeled "image description" for the background image they want to add to the product. However, there is a character limit of 300.

Similarities with other image generators and additional features

This feature works similarly to other open-ended text-to-image generators, such as OpenAI's DALL-E 3 and Midjourney, where users input descriptive text prompts and AI generates images based on those prompts.

In addition, Amazon's promotional video also shows that this new AI product image generator includes another feature: themes. After generating the background image, clicking the "use theme enhancement" button allows users to further improve the image by adding additional props and objects that fit different theme categories, such as "pumpkin spice," which places realistic pumpkins in the background to create an autumn atmosphere.

Amazon's video showcases a list of various loose environments and aesthetic styles, ranging from "cabin" to "forest" to "metal" and "office."

How it helps product sellers and advertisers

In its blog post, Amazon wrote that they developed this new AI product image generator to "make it easier for people to create branded thematic images."

This feature is currently in the testing phase, and prior to this, Meta Platforms announced a similar feature for advertisers to use in their ads on Facebook and Instagram.