Amazon's tag for AI-generated people in product images: what to add, and when

Since 22 July 2026, Amazon asks sellers to tag product images, videos and A+ content that show photorealistic AI-generated people, by adding the keyword contains-synthetic-performer to the file's XMP metadata before upload. Images of real people, even when edited with AI tools, and images with no photorealistic people need no tag.

A lifestyle image with a person in it is one of the most useful images in a listing. It shows scale, use and who the product is for. Many sellers now make those images with AI tools rather than a photo shoot, which is why Amazon's tag matters to so many listings.

This guide explains what Amazon announced, which images need the tag and which do not, how to add it with tools you may already have, and how Walmart's and Etsy's rules on AI images differ.

What did Amazon announce on 22 July 2026?

Amazon's notice, dated 22 July 2026 and reproduced by the listing software firm GeekSeller, asks sellers to tag "product images that contain photorealistic AI-generated people" before adding them to listings. The tag is the keyword contains-synthetic-performer, added to the dc:subject field of the image's XMP metadata with an IPTC-compatible metadata editor.

Three details of Amazon's notice matter:

• It covers more than product images. Videos and A+ content are included.
• It applies in every Amazon store. The notice covers listings in "any of our worldwide stores".
• Shoppers may see it. Amazon says that when the metadata is present, it will add an indicator "where applicable" telling customers the image includes AI-generated people.

Amazon names a New York law as the reason: it requires disclosure when images or videos in advertisements contain photorealistic AI-generated people. Amazon applied the rule to every store rather than to New York alone. Neither the notice nor GeekSeller's account gives a deadline, so treat it as in force now.

Which images need Amazon's AI people tag?

An image needs Amazon's AI people tag when it contains a person who looks real and was made by AI.

The exemptions, in Amazon's terms: content that "only features real people (even if they have been altered with AI tools)", content that only features characters from films, television, streaming, documentaries, video games or other expressive works, and content with no people or with people who are not photorealistic.

Hands are where sellers most often miss the tag. A close-up of two hands opening a jar is an image of a person as far as the rule goes, if those hands look real. When in doubt, tag it: the tag costs nothing, and a missing one is a breach of the rule.

How does Amazon's AI people tag apply to a typical listing?

Walk through an Amazon listing's images one at a time and the tag rule becomes easy to apply:

• The main image. Your product on white, with no person. No tag.
• A lifestyle scene made by AI, with a woman holding your water bottle on a trail. A photorealistic AI person. Tag it.
• The same scene with no person, the bottle on a rock beside a backpack. No person. No tag.
• A close-up of AI-made hands pouring from your kettle. Realistic hands are part of a person. Tag it.
• A photo from your shoot with a hired model, where you used an AI tool to change the background. A real person, altered with AI tools. No tag.
• A size image with a drawn outline of a person for scale. Not photorealistic. No tag.
• An A+ banner with an AI-made family at a table. A+ content is covered. Tag it.
• A product video with an AI presenter. Videos are covered. Tag it.

How do you add the contains-synthetic-performer tag?

You add the contains-synthetic-performer tag as a keyword in the image file's metadata, in the XMP dc:subject field, which many programs call keywords or tags. The dc:subject field holds a list, so adding the keyword does not remove keywords already there.

Three ways to add it:

1. A photo editor with a keywords field. Many photo editors and photo libraries write their keywords into XMP dc:subject. Add contains-synthetic-performer as a keyword, then export the image with its metadata included. Check the export setting: some programs strip metadata to make files smaller.
2. ExifTool, a free command-line tool that reads and writes image metadata. One command adds the keyword to a file's dc:subject list: exiftool -XMP-dc:Subject+=contains-synthetic-performer image.jpg
3. Software that adds it for you. Some listing tools, Commicorn among them, write the tag into the files they export.

However you add it, check it. Open the file's metadata in a second program, or read it back with ExifTool (exiftool -XMP-dc:Subject image.jpg), and confirm the keyword is there before you upload.

Can an Amazon main image be AI-made?

No. Amazon's AI people tag is about people, and it does not make an AI-drawn product acceptable. Amazon's main image rules ask for the actual product being sold, not an illustration, on pure white. Amazon's image guidance for the tag sits beside those rules, not in place of them.

So a sound rule for every Amazon listing is: the main image is a photo of your product, and AI scenes belong in the slots after it, tagged when they show a realistic person.

The same thinking helps with returns. A shopper who sees an AI-made scene and then receives the product compares the two. If the product in the scene is your real product, at its real size, the scene sets the right expectation. If it is a slightly better version, the scene has made a promise the box cannot keep, whatever tag the file carries.

What does Walmart ask of AI content?

Walmart asks for AI-generated content that is accurate, and it asks for no tag. Walmart's compliance guidelines for AI-generated content, published on 3 April 2026, are about accuracy:

• "All claims, images, and descriptions must match the actual product including size, color and other features."
• "it's strictly prohibited to use AI-generated content that misrepresents a product."
• "You're responsible for reviewing and substantiating AI-generated content before publication."

Walmart also bars unsupported or unsafe claims and fabricated reviews or endorsements made with AI. An AI person holding your product is acceptable to Walmart if the product in the image is your product, at its real size and colour. An AI image that improves the product is not.

How does Etsy's AI disclosure differ from Amazon's tag?

Etsy's Creativity Standards take a third approach: Etsy asks sellers to disclose the use of AI in the listing's description, in words a buyer reads, rather than in a file's metadata. Sellers have also reported listings removed after an automated check matched their photos with images elsewhere, and difficulty reaching a person to appeal.

If you sell on all three, the safe habit is the strictest of each: tag AI people for Amazon, keep every image true to the product for Walmart, and say in your Etsy description how your images were made.

How do you keep track of which images carry the tag?

Amazon's AI people tag is easy to add and easy to lose, so keep a record of how each image was made. Files are copied, resized, compressed and exported again, and some of those steps strip metadata without saying so. A simple record keeps you safe:

• Name AI images so you can find them. A short suffix in the file name, such as "-ai-person", tells anyone on your team which files need the tag.
• Keep the originals. If a marketplace asks how an image was made, the original file and the tool you used answer the question.
• Tag last. Add the keyword after your final resize and compression, then upload that file and no other.
• Re-check after any edit. A new crop or a colour change in another program can drop the XMP. Read the tag back before every upload.

For agencies and teams, put the check in the hand-off: whoever uploads to Amazon confirms the tag on every AI image with a person, the same way they would confirm the image size.

What should you check before uploading AI images to Amazon?

Before you upload AI-made images to Amazon, check these seven things:

1. Sort your images. Mark every image, video and A+ image that shows a realistic person.
2. Separate real from made. A photo of a real person, even retouched, needs no tag. A person made by AI does.
3. Tag the AI ones. Add contains-synthetic-performer to dc:subject in the XMP.
4. Read the tag back. Confirm it survived your export.
5. Check the product in each image. It should be your product, at its real size and colour, for every marketplace.
6. Keep the main image a photo. The actual product on pure white.
7. For Etsy, add a sentence to the description saying how the images were made.

How Commicorn helps

• The tag, written for you. When you export for Amazon, each listing image with an AI-drawn person carries the contains-synthetic-performer keyword in its XMP, written without re-encoding the image. Images made only from your photos, such as the Hero shot and Size chart, are never tagged.
• Your product, kept real. On the Untouched product route your photo's pixels are never redrawn, so the product in a scene with a person is the product you photographed.
• A main image from your photo. The Hero shot is your product on white, from your photo, with only the light corrected.

Commicorn knows which of your images show AI-made people and tags them for Amazon. Start free.

Questions sellers ask

Do images already on my Amazon listings need the tag?

Amazon's notice asks sellers to tag images before adding them to listings. If an image with an AI-made person is already live, the simplest course is to upload a tagged copy in its place.

Will Amazon's AI people tag hurt my listing?

Amazon's notice says only that Amazon may show shoppers an indicator where applicable, and it does not say the tag changes search. A missing tag, on the other hand, leaves the image outside the rule.

Does Amazon's tag go in the file name or the listing text?

No. The contains-synthetic-performer tag goes in the image file's XMP metadata, in dc:subject.

Does a cartoon-style person need Amazon's AI people tag?

No, not when the person is clearly not photorealistic.

Do mannequins and dress forms need Amazon's AI people tag?

No. Mannequins and dress forms are not people, so an image with only a mannequin needs no tag.