Amazon Is Going All In On Generative AI

We're living in an era of AI. Naturally, Amazon wants to serve the same to its customers. To achieve that goal, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says "every single one" of the company's businesses is experimenting with generative AI tools. Down the road, Amazon wants to incorporate AI in all of its products, be it business-centric, or otherwise. "It is going to be at the heart of what we do," Jassy added.

Amazon's recent moves in the field of AI haven't really been a secret. In July 2023, the company's cloud division announced an upgrade for its AI foundation model service called Bedrock to add support for more generative AI-based tools. The company is even offering free AWS courses for parties aiming to develop products that leverage generative AI, an off-shoot of AI that can create text, images, videos, and audio clips within seconds with minimal effort.

The e-commerce titan has all the incentive — and infrastructure — at its disposal to go all-in. Amazon has the money, talent, and most importantly, the world's biggest cloud infrastructure to host AI tools in all shapes and forms. Microsoft's Azure and Google's eponymous cloud service already form the backbone of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, and Bard.

Jassy didn't go into details about Amazon's generative AI plans, but the roadmap isn't hard to guess. "Generative AI is something we've been working on for a while, and it has huge potential — especially in the home," Amazon SVP Dave Limp recently told Axios.

Amazon has one the highest — if not the absolute highest — number of products that could use generative AI upgrades. The most obvious candidate would be Alexa, which is already serving millions of customers across the globe on diverse form factors, ranging from speakers to microwaves to twerking teddy bears.

Alexa's skills are fairly rudimentary compared to Google Assistant, despite the fact that Amazon allows users to create custom Alexa skills and routines. But there's already some competitive inspiration for Amazon to boost Alexa with AI skills. Google is reportedly hoping to supercharge its virtual assistant with AI skills, and Apple is said to be working towards a similar goal with Siri.

The next avenue, which Jassy also highlighted in the earnings call, was entertainment. One doesn't have to imagine too far away from rival Netflix to imagine what Amazon might do. Netflix extensively uses AI to fine-tune its content algorithms. Ever since it started dabbling in interactive experiences like mobile games, the streaming giant has also turned its attention towards generative AI.

Amazon could use some AI magic to enhance the content discovery experience on Prime Video and the sister music streaming service. However, one of the most consequential upgrades would be the core Amazon shopping experience. 

Generative AI, especially in its multimodal form, can dramatically enhance the shopping experience on Amazon's marketplace. From serving tailored product recommendations to suggesting products specifically fulfilling the criteria outlined in a prompt — there is limitless scope.