UK SMBs are increasingly turning to AI for their ads — and many consider it their secret weapon for expansion

AI is opening to the door to advertising on streaming TV platforms for SMBs

37% of small and medium businesses feel cross border campaigns are more accessible thanks to AI

SMBs see AI as key tool in remaining competitive in the future

Barriers to cross-border and multi-region advertising are being broken by AI, according to a new survey by Amazon Ads.

Surveying 4,100 respondents across 14 countries, the results found nearly three-quarters (73%) of UK SMBs have found that AI advertising tools make streaming TV an affordable and accessible platform for their promotional messaging.

The questions focus on the difference between advertising accessibility in 2026 compared with 3 years ago, when 69% found cost to be the main barrier against streaming TV advertising access.

How does AI help SMBs advertise?

Now, over half of SMBs (54%) interested in advertising on TV believe that AI tools can enable them to reach new audiences and increase brand awareness (53%). Meanwhile, a majority of SMBs believe AI can be instrumental in expanding their competitiveness.

Amazon Ads employs AI tools to create and manage AI campaigns, as well as improve opimization and targeting. It offers image and video generation solutions to create realistic visuals and uses a chatbot (“conversational agent”) to develop concepts and scripts with the advertiser.

The survey also found 68% of UK SMBs found AI advertising has supported growth, and 52% highlight that it has supported expansion into other countries. Of those surveyed, 37% stated that cross-border campaigns seemed out of reach just three years ago.

"What we're seeing is a real shift in confidence among small and medium-sized businesses," noted Cyril Clerget, General Manager of Global SMB Advertising at Amazon Ads. "AI-powered tools are helping them explore advertising channels — like streaming TV — that once felt out of reach.”

The survey has also found that 88% of SMBs are planning to use AI for creating adverts, and 74% aim to use the technology to produce streaming ads. Interestingly, the survey also found that 45% intend to use AI for competitor analysis in the future.

Is AI the future of affordable advertising?

Affordable AI tools seem to be an attractive prospect for SMBs wishing to aim for streaming TV. Over the past few years, radio advertising has become more targeted thanks to increasing numbers of digital stations, with advertisers able to tailor to specific demographics.

Streaming TV offers a similar curation, and 75% of surveyed UK SMBs see AI as the answer to improving their future competitiveness.

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