Paula Despins, Vice President of Ads Measurement at Amazon Ads, today announced the Amazon Ads MCP Server has entered open beta. Built on the Model Context Protocol - an open standard for AI system communication - the server connects artificial intelligence agents to Amazon Ads API functionality through a translation layer that converts natural language prompts into structured API calls.

The announcement arrived at IAB ALM, representing Amazon's extension of agentic capabilities beyond its advertising console. Amazon previously launched Ads Agent on November 11, 2025, at its unBoxed conference, introducing conversational AI for complex advertising workflows within the Amazon Ads console. The MCP Server enables advertisers and partners to connect custom-built agents or AI platforms such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini through a single integration, eliminating multiple point-to-point connections and ongoing maintenance requirements.

Technical architecture bridges natural language and API operations

The Amazon Ads MCP Server acts as a standardized access layer for AI models and agents. According to technical documentation released by Amazon, the server "transforms complex multi-field API operations into simple conversational queries, making Amazon Ads insights like campaigns, performance metrics, billing, and account information accessible to Large Language Models and AI applications through natural language interactions."

The Model Context Protocol represents an open-source standard that enables developers to build secure, two-way connections between data sources and AI-powered applications. Developed by Anthropic, MCP has emerged as critical infrastructure across marketing technology platforms throughout 2025. The protocol defines how AI systems communicate with external tools through three fundamental primitives: tools, resources, and prompts.

Amazon's implementation currently exposes tools as primitives. A tool represents a function exposed to an agent with a description, input properties, and return values that allows the agent to perform an action. Resources provide contextual information to AI applications such as file contents, database records, and API responses. Prompts serve as reusable templates that help structure interactions with language models. According to Amazon's documentation, resources and prompts are planned for future releases.

The architecture includes three key participants. The Amazon Ads MCP Server standardizes and exposes Amazon Ads features and data through tools, resources, and prompts. The MCP Client acts as a connector that securely manages data exchange between the AI application and the MCP Server. The primitives define fundamental building blocks specifying the types of contextual information that can be shared with AI applications and the range of actions that can be performed.

Pre-built workflows reduce operational complexity

Traditional APIs expose specific capabilities one at a time rather than coordinating complete, autonomous workflows that AI agents require. Without guidance, agents must piece together how individual steps fit together, and they don't reliably produce optimal results. Straightforward tasks like launching a campaign in a new country can involve dozens of manual steps across multiple systems and decisions.

The Amazon Ads MCP Server addresses this limitation through tools that contain pre-built capabilities and workflows. These tools reduce complexity by orchestrating Amazon Ads capabilities into complete, multi-step operations core to everyday advertising workflows: creating accounts, generating reports, launching campaigns, and expanding to new locales. The tools act as instruction manuals, turning complex advertising operations into simple actions an agent can execute.

For users, tools invoke through natural language prompts. Behind the scenes, tools handle the coordinated sequence of actions needed to complete the workflow. If an advertiser runs campaigns in the United States and Canada, a tool enables them to quickly expand it to another country with a single prompt. Amazon launched a tool to create end-to-end Sponsored Products campaigns in a single workflow. The tool handles what would normally require three or more operations - creating the campaign, setting up ad groups, and creating ads - using a single prompt. This generates a ready-to-launch campaign that only needs review and approval.

The approach enables advertisers and partners to focus on their unique use cases rather than API integration mechanics. MCP tools reduce the heavy lifting for common advertising actions, allowing focus on strategies, experience, and expertise that differentiate individual businesses.

Account identification diverges from traditional API patterns

Account identification in the Amazon Ads MCP Server differs from traditional Amazon Ads API implementation. While the Amazon Ads API requires accountIds in headers or fields such as inserting a profileId into the Amazon-Advertising-API-Scope header, the MCP server handles this differently.

The server requires account identifiers as parameters in the request body rather than headers, aligning with MCP protocol standards while maintaining equivalent authorization and account scoping functionality. The documentation lists three identifier types: profileId for sponsored ads accounts, managerAccountId for manager accounts, and advertiserAccountId which can represent a DSP advertiser account, global account ID, or Amazon Marketing Cloud instance ID depending on the specific tool being called.

Tool naming follows a standardized convention using the format <tool_group>-<tool_name>, where the tool group represents the functional category and the tool name describes the specific operation. For example, account_management-create_advertiser_account indicates a tool in the account management group that creates advertiser accounts. This naming structure enables efficient tool discovery using regex patterns based on tool groups.

Example use cases documented by Amazon include querying campaign performance with requests like "Show me campaign performance for October 2025 on [account_id]," accessing account information by asking "Show me a list of all of my advertising accounts" or "Show me my recent invoices on [account_id]," generating reports with requests like "Create a Campaign report for [account_id]," and updating campaign settings through simple instructions such as "Increase my campaign budget to $500 on [campaign_id]."

Platform consolidation strategy continues

The announcement arrives as Amazon systematically consolidates its advertising platform throughout 2024 and 2025. The company launched a unified account structure in October 2025, enabling advertisers to access all Amazon Ads products through one account without separate registration for sponsored ads and DSP campaigns. Amazon introduced a unified reporting system on November 11, 2025, consolidating reporting interfaces and applications across the entire platform through the report builder UI, reporting API, and Amazon Marketing Stream.

The company expanded API infrastructure across multiple dimensions. Amazon DSP's forecasting API reached general availability in October 2025, enabling programmatic access to campaign projections through a single endpoint. Geographic Insights and Activation API entered beta in 2025, providing programmatic control over location-based bid adjustments at the postal code level through six distinct endpoints.

Amazon launched Export APIs in September 2024, providing a common model and format across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display campaigns. The asynchronous APIs replaced snapshot functionality, with a firm October 15, 2024 deprecation deadline. Sponsored Products video became available in the United States on November 11, 2025, through both the Advertising console and API endpoints supporting CreateAd, UpdateAd, and QueryAd operations.

Additional API developments included brand suitability settings entering open beta on November 18, 2025, allowing DSP advertisers to adjust advertiser-level and ad-group level brand suitability settings via API. Amazon introduced reserve share of voice in October 2025, enabling advertisers to purchase guaranteed Sponsored Brands top-of-search placements for branded keywords at fixed, upfront prices exclusively through API integration.

Broader industry adoption of agentic infrastructure

The Amazon Ads MCP Server launch reflects substantial industry momentum toward agentic AI capabilities. IAB Tech Lab announced on January 6, 2025, a comprehensive agentic roadmap designed to scale AI agent deployment across digital advertising without fragmenting the ecosystem through multiple incompatible protocols. The roadmap extends established industry standards including OpenRTB, AdCOM, and VAST with modern execution protocols rather than introducing entirely new technical frameworks.

Yahoo DSP announced on January 6, 2026, the integration of agentic AI capabilities directly into its demand-side platform, marking one of the first implementations where artificial intelligence agents can autonomously execute campaign operations rather than simply provide recommendations. The launch transforms Yahoo's advertising platform from a tool requiring constant human oversight into a system where AI agents continuously monitor, diagnose, and with approval can independently execute corrective actions.

LiveRamp introduced agentic orchestration capabilities on October 1, 2025, enabling autonomous AI agents to access identity resolution, segmentation and measurement tools. Adobe launched its Experience Platform Agent Orchestrator on September 10, 2025, for managing agents across Adobe and third-party ecosystems.

A coalition of advertising technology companies launched the Ad Context Protocol on October 15, 2025, betting that a new open-source technical standard could enable artificial intelligence agents to communicate across platforms and execute advertising tasks autonomously. The protocol emerged from a group including Scope3, Yahoo, PubMatic, Swivel, Triton, and Optable. However, the announcement drew immediate scrutiny from industry observers questioning whether the sector needs another protocol when existing standards remain underutilized.

McKinsey analysis published in July 2025 identified agentic AI as the most significant emerging trend for marketing organizations, with $1.1 billion in equity investment flowing into the technology during 2024. Job postings related to agentic AI increased 985 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to McKinsey's Technology Trends Outlook 2025.

Implementation challenges persist despite investment

Gartner predicted on June 25, 2025 that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027 due to escalating costs, unclear business value, and inadequate risk controls. The research firm's January 2025 poll of 3,412 webinar attendees revealed uneven investment patterns, with 19% reporting significant investments in agentic systems while 42% made conservative investments.

Industry analysis suggests autonomous AI systems could automate campaign setup, targeting and optimization functions currently handled by demand-side platforms. Ari Paparo, founder and CEO of Marketecture Media, argued on July 21, 2025 that agentic AI poses multiple existential threats to DSPs. The modern DSP represents "one of the most complex categories of software ever invented," according to Paparo, but technological shifts threaten this established model through AI-driven alternatives.

Security research revealed on July 20, 2025 that MCP implementations face significant vulnerabilities that could compromise marketing technology platforms and expose sensitive advertiser data. According to security analysis shared by machine learning engineer Akshay Pachaar, "MCP security is completely broken" due to fundamental weaknesses in how the protocol handles tool interactions. Tool poisoning attacks specifically target the communication layer between MCP clients and servers, where malicious actors can inject harmful instructions or manipulate tool responses.

Global availability with credential requirements

The Amazon Ads MCP Server and tools are available globally in open beta to Amazon Ads partners with active API credentials. The server is currently in closed beta status according to technical documentation, though Amazon's public announcement indicates open beta availability for partners with API credentials.

Amazon does not own or operate the LLMs or AI applications that connect through the MCP Server. Developers can connect to the MCP Server using Claude from Anthropic, ChatGPT from OpenAI, Amazon Q, Amazon Bedrock, Amazon AgentCore, and other MCP-compatible applications. The Amazon Ads MCP Server provides a standardized bridge between those external AI systems and Amazon Ads, with advertisers maintaining full control and flexibility over their AI experiences while benefiting from reliable access to Amazon Ads context.

The announcement positions Amazon among major advertising platforms systematically reducing technical barriers to platform adoption while expanding automation capabilities. The pattern of incremental platform enhancements suggests Amazon is addressing friction points across the advertiser lifecycle, with account registration simplification tackling initial platform adoption barriers while API expansions and tool accessibility improvements address ongoing campaign management efficiency.

The Amazon Ads MCP Server represents infrastructure enabling a shift from manual campaign management workflows to agent-assisted operations where AI systems handle coordinated sequences of actions based on natural language instructions. The extent to which advertisers adopt these capabilities will depend on their technical sophistication, trust in autonomous systems, and comfort delegating complex advertising decisions to AI agents that operate with limited human oversight beyond review and approval stages.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Amazon Ads, led by Paula Despins, Vice President of Ads Measurement, announced the Amazon Ads MCP Server availability to Amazon Ads partners with active API credentials globally.

What: The Amazon Ads MCP Server provides a standardized access layer built on the Model Context Protocol that connects AI agents to Amazon Ads API functionality, transforming complex API operations into conversational queries. The server includes pre-built tools that orchestrate multi-step advertising workflows such as creating accounts, generating reports, launching campaigns, and expanding to new markets through natural language prompts. Advertisers can connect custom-built agents or AI platforms including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Amazon Q, Amazon Bedrock, and Amazon AgentCore through a single integration.

When: Amazon announced the open beta on February 2, 2026, at IAB ALM. The company previously launched a closed beta on November 13, 2025, following the introduction of Ads Agent at the unBoxed conference on November 11, 2025.

Where: The Amazon Ads MCP Server is available globally to partners with active API credentials. The server operates as a bridge between external AI systems and Amazon Ads, with advertisers maintaining control over their AI experiences while accessing Amazon Ads context through standardized MCP primitives.

Why: The launch extends Amazon's agentic capabilities beyond its advertising console, enabling advertisers and partners to connect their preferred AI platforms to Amazon Ads functionality without requiring custom integrations for each connection. Traditional APIs expose specific capabilities one at a time rather than coordinating complete workflows, requiring agents to piece together individual steps. Pre-built tools reduce operational complexity by handling coordinated sequences of actions, allowing advertisers to focus on strategies and expertise rather than API integration mechanics. The server eliminates multiple point-to-point connections and ongoing maintenance requirements as Amazon's APIs evolve, with agents staying compatible automatically without code rewrites.

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