Every Amazon division is working on generative AI projects
Gen AI 'is going to be at the heart of what we do,' CEO Andy Jassy said on an earnings call.
Just like pretty much every other major tech company, Amazon is placing a heavy focus on generative artificial intelligence. CEO Andy Jassy noted on Amazon's latest earnings call that every division has multiple generative AI projects in the works.
"Inside Amazon, every one of our teams is working on building generative AI applications that reinvent and enhance their customers' experience," Jassy said. "But while we will build a number of these applications ourselves, most will be built by other companies, and we're optimistic that the largest number of these will be built on [Amazon Web Services]. Remember, the core of AI is data. People want to bring generative AI models to the data, not the other way around."
To that end, Jassy said that AWS provides services and infrastructure that can help its customers power generative AI apps, as The Verge notes. The AWS CodeWhisperer system, for instance, aims to speed up developers' workflows by suggesting snippets of code they can use directly in the code editor.
As for the ways that Amazon plans to use generative AI in its consumer-facing products and services, Jassy was slightly more coy, but underlined the importance of the technology to all facets of the company moving forward.
The projects "range from things that help us be more cost effective and streamlined in how we run operations in various businesses to the absolute heart of every customer experience in which we offer," he said. "And so it's true in our stores business. It's true in our AWS business. It's true in our advertising business. It's true in all our devices, and you can just imagine what we're working on with respect to Alexa there. It's true in our entertainment businesses, every single one. It is going to be at the heart of what we do. It's a significant investment and focus for us."
We might learn more about some of Amazon's consumer-focused generative AI efforts when it reveals new devices on September 20th. The company will inevitably have a range of Alexa-powered products to show off. Meanwhile, considering what Google and Microsoft have been doing with gen AI chatbots, it wouldn't be a shock to see Amazon start offering one of its own on its storefront.
