A small team in Brussels is selling non-alcoholic beverages across Europe, and AI is the reason they can. When I sat down with Annabel Soenen, Sales Director Benelux & Export at Gimber, she didn't talk about AI as something aspirational or futuristic. Our conversation focused on how AI is a natural part of her daily toolkit.
Annabel explained to me how, with just a few inputs, her team can instantly generate optimized product listings, including images, titles, and descriptions, that drive visibility not just across seven Amazon stores, but on their own website too. She uses AI for forecasting and analysis, without the heavy upfront costs that were previously required. That's what productivity looks like when AI works for small businesses.
At Amazon, we see this every day. Our global listing tools allow a business like Gimber to upload basic product information and generate a fully realized, optimized detail page ready to attract traffic, which will be translated automatically for whichever country they're selling in. What used to be a repetitive task, requiring significant time investments, is now fast and seamless. Our AI-powered Seller Assistant with agentic capabilities helps sellers with forecasting, inventory control, and pricing, so they can focus on what really matters—making great products for their customers.
Cross-border growth is where AI becomes truly transformative. Annabel put it simply: "expanding globally is complex." She's balancing different sets of legislation, different tax regulations, and different languages. Competing globally used to require the kind of resources only large corporations could afford: dedicated teams for expansion, localization, budget. Not anymore. AI is helping her navigate all of that, from understanding export requirements to adapting product information for local countries.
And then there's marketing innovation. We recently launched AI Creative Studio, which enables small and medium-sized businesses to generate images, video, and audio, including 30-second advertisements, in minutes, at no additional cost. Before AI, producing that kind of professional content was expensive and it gave large companies a significant edge. Annabel confirmed that more than 90% of visitors to Gimber's product pages click on videos to learn more. Creating those videos from scratch was prohibitively costly. But now AI makes it accessible. That levels the playing field.
Last year small and medium-sized businesses on Amazon achieved more than €40 billion in sales across Europe. This momentum is just the start. I believe the potential for growth is unlimited, provided we develop this technology responsibly and remove barriers to adoption. According to an OECD D4SME Survey, roughly one in six SMEs remain at a "basic" stage of digital maturity. Enabling SMEs to use AI in transformative ways requires responsible AI deployment and smart regulation that protects against real risks without creating new barriers. The governments that strike this balance will unlock the greatest economic benefits for their citizens and businesses.
Europe stands at a defining moment. The entrepreneurial spirit is present. The technology is ready. We need the regulatory environment to support frameworks that enable small businesses to thrive.
