In a sign of how rapidly the world of artificial intelligence is evolving, Amazon Web Services Inc. today announced an expansion of its product portfolio designed to move agent AI into your software stack, while forging a new partnership with OpenAI Group PBC.
The cloud giant has released new customer support services for Amazon Connect focused on healthcare, supply chain management, and employment. AWS also launched updates to Amazon Quick, bringing a highly personalized and proactive assistant to your desktop.
AWS CEO Matt Garman (pictured) said the company’s latest move reflects its belief that agent AI needs to evolve beyond simply replacing human tasks. Amazon’s Prime Video division has implemented several new agent solutions in a major internal code rewrite ahead of today’s release, he said at a media and analyst briefing in San Francisco today.
“What would have taken two years took two quarters,” Garman said. “These business processes can be changed for the better.”
Agent as a teammate
Speed of development was a major theme among Amazon’s various announcements. Enhancements to Connect introduce new tools to deploy AI-native payment processing workflows in weeks. This is part of building an AI agent that acts as a true work partner, explained Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions at AWS.
“This isn’t about giving you another pretty dashboard,” Aubrey says. “We need to build agent teammates.”
AWS’ Jigar Thakkar spoke about Amazon Quick at a media and analyst briefing in San Francisco.
The Amazon Quick makeover was designed to address the frictions developers often encounter when adopting AI tools. AWS positions Quick as more than just a familiar AI conversational interface, characterizing it as an intuitive solution that leverages your personal knowledge graph to connect your files, calendar, email, and apps while learning on the fly.
“The way we work is not working,” said Jigar Thakkar, vice president of Agent AI for Business. “Quick connects the dots. No matter where you work, Quick recognizes you. Every time you use Quick, it learns from you.”
Integration with OpenAI
AWS’ latest releases were announced this week against a backdrop of changing dynamics between major model providers and hyperscalers. OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. announced Monday that they are revising their technology partnership to bring ChatGPT’s developer model to Amazon Bedrock.
Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions at AWS, spoke at an AWS event in San Francisco.
Today AWS made several additional announcements, including the Bedrock management agent powered by OpenAI and the integration of Codex into Amazon’s single application programming interface for accessing the underlying models. Customers will be able to build OpenAI models on AWS in conjunction with their cloud provider’s services, security controls, identity systems, and procurement processes.
“It’s crazy that eight weeks ago we had nothing, and now we’re on stage talking about all the things we’re building together,” Anthony Liguori, Amazon’s vice president and distinguished engineer, said during a panel session discussing OpenAI. “Next year will see a complete revolution in the industry.”
For some observers, today’s announcements about AWS and OpenAI may be further evidence that the Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, industry is facing an impending collapse, often referred to as a “SaaSpocalypse.” AWS’s Garman doesn’t think this is a likely outcome, at least for companies participating in the program.
“‘SaaSpocalypse’ is a fun word, but to be honest, it’s probably a bit of an exaggeration,” Garman says. “Incumbent application providers have a huge advantage. I’m 100% confident that if all these companies stick with the status quo and don’t innovate, they will be overtaken.”
Photo: Robert Hoff, Mark Albertson/SiliconANGLE
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