The news: Amazon is giving brands more influence over how they appear in Alexa responses with its new Branded Conversations ad format, which the retailer unveiled at its unBoxed conference. The feature will launch in the US in January.

How it works: The format is an extension of Amazon’s Sponsored Brands prompts, which appear in shopping results and product detail pages and direct shoppers to a conversation with Alexa for Shopping.

Advertisers will have the ability to give Amazon a “conversation brief” that details how their brand differs from competitors, how their products compare with others on the market and address customer needs, and which items can be combined in a routine or bundle. Amazon layers this information onto data from product pages, brand storefronts, and other sources.

Conversations generated from the prompt are labeled as sponsored, with a disclosure that brand-provided information helped shape the response.

Advertisers can edit their briefs throughout a campaign and access reporting that shows sample Alexa conversations about their brand. Brands will also be able to see prompt-level clicks, conversions, and return on ad spend.

Implications for advertisers: Branded Conversations could be one of UnBoxed’s more consequential announcements. While brands have for the most part been forced to rely on organic means to boost AI visibility and get chatbots like Alexa to represent their offerings favorably, Branded Conversations gives advertisers an opportunity to shape how shoppers view their brands and products in a more direct way.

The ad format could also inform broader retail media GEO strategy, with one agency executive telling AdAge that it allows brands to see how directly contributing product and brand information affects AI responses and simplifies the path to purchase. Additionally, the prospect of more control over responses could encourage more advertisers to spend on sponsored prompts—or at minimum include Amazon in their AI advertising plans.

The challenge will be integrating these ads without diminishing user trust in Alexa’s recommendations. Over half of US adults say they would trust AI recommendations less if they knew advertisers influenced the answers, while just 14% would trust them more, according to an April Ipsos survey. Yet Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted on the company’s Q2 earnings call that shoppers who click on a sponsored prompt convert 48% more often and spend 21% more on average than those who don’t interact with the format. That suggests shoppers are willing to accept advertisers’ influence if it means access to more detailed product and brand information.