Transcript
Eric Seufert: Hello and welcome to the MDM podcast. I am your host, Eric Seufert, and I am joined today by Adam Epstein, who is returning to the podcast for the fourth time. Adam, welcome back.
Adam Epstein: Thank you very much. How many fourth-time guests have you had, Eric? Am I the first?
ES: I have had a few guests come back more frequently, but not with as short a span of time since the previous appearance. You are coming back just a few months after we last spoke, but your expertise is deeply relevant at this moment because we are going to talk all about Amazon and agentic commerce.
AE: And I hear you have some strong views on agentic commerce, Eric.
ES: I do. We will get into those. Before we do, please reintroduce yourself to the audience.
AE: Adam Epstein, co-founder and CEO of GG. GG is the AI media manager for the Amazon DSP. We work with some of the largest advertisers in the world to change the way they work in this media channel. Our customers tend to be large agencies managing some very sophisticated brands, and we cut the operational work of managing the Amazon DSP by 80% and immediately improve advertising performance.
We were also the recent winner of a global Amazon Ads partner award. It is our back-to-back global award. It is a prestigious award with Amazon, so we are feeling really good about our progress and continuing to grow.
ES: That is right. Congratulations. I remember when you told me you were up for the award, I remember thinking it would be bizarre if you did not win that.
AE: We did.
ES: You did. And you looked quite dapper in your acceptance photo.
AE: Thank you very much, Eric. I think it is the first time I have worn a suit professionally, not at a wedding, in a very long time. I tried to make sure that I was good to go for the award ceremony.
ES: I am permanently dressed like a total slob. I went to this antitrust conference earlier this year in Europe, and I remember thinking maybe I should get a suit. I just kept putting it off and putting it off. Finally, it was too late, so I just wore slacks and a sweater. I looked so out of place. It was all lawyers and then me. I am giving a presentation at an event in November. This time I really do need to dress up. This is a good reminder for me to get some clothes that do not look like they were bought at Goodwill.
But my own sartorial choices aside, we are going to talk all about Amazon today. You are the Amazon advertising expert.
AE: Something like that.
ES: Well, I think so, and it is my podcast. I have a question that I have been asking the last few guests as this topic of agentic commerce comes up because it is at the frontier of AI, commerce, and consumer adoption. Am I wrong about agentic commerce being a mirage?
AE: I think the definition of agentic commerce and the prism with which you point this thesis continues to have a narrower and narrower foothold given the breadth and depth of agentic capabilities that are materializing over the last few months especially. You yourself wrote an incredible blog post recently about how agentic commerce for OTAs is actually not necessarily a mirage but in fact is a desirable customer experience and a positive economic experience for the entire travel industry. The lens of what agentic commerce could be as a mirage is having much more of a narrower scope as more and more agents are completing commerce transactions for a variety of different use cases.