AdExchanger Talks – "AI That's Generative, Not Generic"
Date: December 16, 2025
Host: Alison Schiff
Guest: Jay Richman, VP of Products and Technology, Amazon Ads
Episode Overview
In this episode of AdExchanger Talks, Managing Editor Alison Schiff interviews Jay Richman, Amazon’s VP of Products and Technology, about the seismic impact of generative and agentic AI on creative advertising. The conversation dives into how AI is transforming content creation, personalization, and scale—making what was once the sole domain of big brands accessible to all. They discuss the opportunities (and growing pains) of AI adoption, the delicate balance of creative automation with human intuition, and the importance of embracing change to stay competitive.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Jay Richman’s Journey and Monetization Philosophy
- Jay’s Background: Native New Yorker, long career in ad tech, previously held roles at Spotify, Scholastic, NBCU.
- Monetization as a Consumer Benefit: Monetization enables investment in better content and improves the consumer experience.
- Quote:
"The better we monetize, the more we can invest in things like content, the better the overall viewer experience became in the case of Hulu, now in the case of Amazon..."
(05:43, Jay Richman)
- Quote:
2. Mixed Monetization Models: Best of Both Worlds
- Why Ads and Subscriptions Can Coexist:
- Extends services to broader audiences.
- Establishes a "clearing price" for subscriptions based on ad-supported ARPU.
- Prevents restricting reach or missing out on consumers who prefer paying to skip ads.
- Quote:
"If everything's behind a paywall, you’re going to limit your reach. If everything's behind ads, there are going to be experiences that folks would happily pay for to avoid interruption. And if you offer both, you understand how best to price while not limiting access."
(08:08, Jay Richman)
3. What Does "Transforming Creative Ad Tech" Mean at Amazon?
- Jay’s Day-to-Day: Focused on the frontier of generative media—creating images, videos, and animations from prompts.
- Democratizing Access: Tools being built primarily support small brands with limited time, budget, or expertise—helping them expand beyond static, basic ads.
- Quote:
"For us at Amazon, most of our advertisers are small brands with little time, budget or skills...And so to me, that's what democratizing access means."
(11:36, Jay Richman)
- Quote:
4. The AI Shift: From Prompt-Based to Agentic Partners
- Agentic AI in Creative Workflows:
- Creative development is moving from a linear, stepwise process to a collapsed, agile workflow.
- AI is evolving from a mere tool to a creative partner—researching ideas, generating concepts, and producing assets.
- Quote:
"Creative development used to follow a pretty linear path...But AI is really collapsing those steps. And it also feels like it's becoming less of a tool that you prompt and more of...a partner that you can use to research and come up with ideas..."
(15:42, Alison Schiff)
5. Real-World AI Adoption in Ad Creative
- Rapid Adoption, Even Among Big Brands:
- Amazon’s tools built for the "non-consumers" (those not making video ads) are now attracting large brands (e.g., Procter & Gamble).
- These companies utilize AI to empower brand managers, reduce production cycle time, and increase efficiency—especially for "long tail" SKUs short on creative resources.
- Quote:
"...We've seen some of the largest brands on the planet, like Procter and Gamble, be some of the earliest, most aggressive users...because they see the opportunity to empower their brand managers, cut down on cycle time..."
(17:28, Jay Richman)
6. The Creative Tension: Performance vs. Backlash
- Case Study (Coca-Cola Christmas Ad):
-
Coke’s generative AI ad sparked artist backlash but delivered standout consumer performance, ranked top global Christmas ad by Kantar.
-
Public Skepticism about authenticity and labor implications persists (noted by critical YouTube comments).
-
Jay’s Take: Growing pains are normal; this mirrors how CGI was received in early cinema. Imperfections will smooth over time; human curation remains necessary.
-
Quote:
"I don't think it's probably too different than how CGI in the film industry was originally greeted...these experiences are very spiky...you're going to get these kinds of comments in the beginning because it's new, because it's seen as potentially disruptive, and because it's imperfect."
(20:49, Jay Richman) -
Memorable audience comment recited by Alison:
"'Nothing says Christmas quite like dad got fired because AI replaced him to do animation. The unintended irony of using real magic as the tagline is hilarious. And this AI ad made me want to drink Pepsi.'"
(20:17, Alison Schiff)
-
7. Embracing Imperfection & Iteration in AI-Driven Creativity
- Human-in-the-Loop:
- Jay shares practical experiences—generative models can still make basic errors (e.g., six-fingered hands, odd product depictions), requiring active human correction.
- AI should empower and augment, not replace, the human.
- Quote:
"...We've tried to develop our tools such that fault tolerance is built in...the human is a feature in the in the loop, not a bug and allows for them to spot these things and iterate."
(22:24, Jay Richman)
8. Advice for Creatives and Skeptics
- Don’t Sit On the Sidelines:
- Jay encourages professionals (including his artist and scientist children) to "run towards the new medium," test, tinker, learn from mistakes—versus sitting out the AI revolution.
- Quote:
"...run towards a new medium, run towards the disruption, test and tinker. And you're going to make a bunch of mistakes along the way, but you're not going to learn as much as you would by being on the sidelines."
(23:36, Jay Richman)
9. AI as Creative Catalyst—Not Substitute for Expertise
- AI Works Best with Human Guidance:
- Greatest value is realized when the user already understands the subject and can direct/critique generative outputs.
- "Best photos" analogy: AI doesn't guarantee quality without taste, prior knowledge, or expertise.
- Quote:
"...the best output being generated by, you know, creative professionals themselves or, you know, folks that have some amount of skill or have some amount of vision or picture and are able to manifest, you know, through the tool."
(32:54, Jay Richman)
10. Game-Changer for Small Brands: TV Advertising and Greater Personalization
- AI Lowers Barriers to Premium Video:
- Once exclusive to high-budget brands, TV/CTV ads are now possible for small businesses.
- Automated and intelligent creative lowers costs, increases scale, enables "personalized, non-skippable, sound-on" experiences.
- Floodgates open for new advertisers (big win for viewers—less repetitive ads), new revenue for platforms, and creative diversity.
- Quote:
"...the last remaining hurdle is then the creative and having something that is of quality, such that it can play in non skippable sound on full screen living room environment. And I think that once that last barrier comes out...you open the floodgates to brands that have always wanted to make the leap onto the big screen, but, but, but couldn't."
(36:27, Jay Richman)
11. Creative Agent & Amazon’s No-Jargon Explanation
- How Creative Agent Works:
- Inspired by the classic agency model (Mad Men), now rebuilt with multi-agent LLMs acting as a creative director + specialized art, audio, video sub-agents.
- Accessible to all (not just Madison Avenue) with a conversational UI tailored to tasks (audio spots, TV commercials, etc.).
- Generates research, concepts, storyboards, assets, and voiceovers, allowing iterative edits at every stage.
- Built native to AI, not retrofitted onto existing creative tools.
- Example (Bird Buddy):
- A small brand switched from an image-only campaign to video using Creative Agent—led to a 338% performance lift for Father’s Day campaign.
- Example (P&G's Dreft):
- National prime video ad created in days, for a fraction of traditional cost/effort.
- Jay’s summary:
"...We wanted to see, like, can we like rebuild that experience, do it in such a way that everybody had access, not just Madison Avenue types."
(41:26, Jay Richman)
12. Safeguarding Against Generic or Formulaic AI Creative
- Starting with the Product, Not a Prompt:
- Amazon's unique spin: each ad is rooted in the product’s data, competitive analysis, real customer feedback—leading to bespoke creative.
- Avoids the "AI sameness" by focusing on authentic, data-driven creative insights for each campaign.
- Quote:
"Because we're starting from a place of insight, every creative should be its own snowflake. I think we're going away from a world of sameness..."
(47:31, Jay Richman)
13. The Biggest Risk: Sitting Out the Revolution
- Enduring Thought:
- Jay underscores the grave risk of waiting out AI transformation; advantages will go to proactive challengers and incumbents who "run toward disruption."
- Quote:
"...run towards the change, run towards the disruption. I think the biggest risk is sitting it out or waiting in late. I think that your competitors most certainly are going to take advantage, and the edge will go to the challengers if the incumbents aren't out there..."
(50:27, Jay Richman)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On AI’s Rapid Evolution
"...the pace of change and innovation over these three years has been nothing short of mind blowing. And I still feel that way...I'm seeing measurable improvement in, you know, model quality and creative output in a way that I just don't remember at any other point in my career."
(14:09, Jay Richman) -
On Public Backlash to AI Creative
"'This AI ad made me want to drink Pepsi.'"
(20:41, Alison Schiff, reading YouTube comment) -
On AI Democratizing TV Ads
"...my head just like spins like thinking about that world and how much better like a viewer experience that becomes. I mean I don't, I don't know about like, I think, you know, the ads that I get on, on Instagram are like phenomenal."
(37:39, Jay Richman) -
On Letting Creators Lead
"...the best photos still, even in the day of smartphones, come out of folks that have taste, that understand balance, that can focus with all of the AI that's built into today's digital cameras..."
(33:09, Jay Richman) -
On Future Regret for Inaction
"...the biggest risk is sitting it out or waiting in late...to sit it out just seems like a grave potential mistake."
(50:31, Jay Richman) -
Podcast Comic Relief:
- Alison’s dog, Oliver, disrupts the conversation, emphasizing the human side of working in the AI era.
(48:13–49:00, Alison & Jay)
- Alison’s dog, Oliver, disrupts the conversation, emphasizing the human side of working in the AI era.
Timestamps for Important Segments
- 04:54 – Jay’s career journey and monetization in digital media
- 10:04 – What “creative transformation” means at Amazon
- 13:17 – Entering Amazon during the ChatGPT wave
- 15:21 – AI’s impact on creative development and workflows
- 17:00 – How brands (large and small) are using Amazon’s AI tools
- 19:10 – Discussion of Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas ad and backlash
- 22:05 – The importance of human fault tolerance in generative workflows
- 31:16 – Keeping humans “in the loop” and AI as creative enhancer
- 35:30 – AI enabling small brands in TV advertising
- 39:34 – Non-technical, no-jargon rundown of Amazon’s Creative Agent and Creative Studio
- 43:49 – Bird Buddy and P&G Dreft campaign case studies
- 46:22 – Combating creative commoditization and “AI sameness”
- 50:12 – The cost of sitting out on AI; future-forward advice
Final Takeaway
This episode paints a vivid picture of generative AI’s growing—if sometimes bumpy—role in ad creative, from the democratization of big-league formats for small brands, to the practical necessity of keeping humans at the center of the creative process. Jay Richman urges the industry: run toward the disruption, not away from it. The tools, once only dreamed of, are already altering the competitive landscape—and those who embrace, test, and iterate will shape the future of advertising.