What happened. On 10 September Amazon Ads announced its ChatGPT integration. Selected US advertisers can now buy conversational ads inside ChatGPT through Amazon’s ad platform, targeted with Amazon’s own shopping, browsing and streaming signals. Delta Vacations is among the first brands testing it. OpenAI’s ad business, by the company’s own account on 31 August, had reached a $1 billion annualised run rate less than 200 days after launch. Ten days later, on the night of 20 September, Amazon began blocking Muse, Meta’s agent that shops on a user’s behalf. Its reasons: the agent browses without identifying itself and can reach customers’ account pages. Muse had been downloaded 730,000 times in its first five days.
The bigger picture. Amazon’s advertising revenue passed $68 billion in 2025, most of it from sponsored products shown to a human looking at the shelf. In the OpenAI deal the ads are sold through Amazon’s system and the data stays with Amazon. Even if the shopping starts in ChatGPT, Amazon sits at the till. With Muse it is the other way round: the agent walks onto Amazon’s shelf, compares prices, ignores the sponsored tag, and the customer relationship stays with Meta. Amazon is not closing the door on AI. It opens and shuts it depending on who holds the till.
For executives: In retail media the question is no longer “how visible am I on the shelf”. It is which data the agent deciding for the buyer reads, and whose till that agent rings up at.