Good morning. Jason here.
In my decade-plus of reporting on Amazon, I’ve interviewed hundreds of small and midsized business owners who make a living selling through the e-commerce giant’s storefronts. Even the most level-headed among them can have a love-hate relationship with the tech giant. Many grumble about the (increasing) size of the revenue cut Amazon takes; others frequently cite Amazon’s sometimes faulty automated software systems, which can disrupt, or even disable, a merchant’s storefront, basically overnight.
So Amazon’s move this week to roll out even more automated systems, in a bid to bring the wonders of AI and agentic AI to its army of merchants, is going to be worth paying close attention to.
If successful, Amazon could widen the already substantial gap between itself and other online marketplaces as the go-to selling destination online. But if things go awry, it would be interesting to watch whether it creates an opening for competitors to recruit some more Amazon-focused sellers. Of course, where most consumers shop, sellers often follow.
More on this, as well as the latest on Nvidia’s trade war headache, below.
—Jason Del Rey
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Fortune Tech? Drop a line here.
