AWS Announces Amazon Q, A New Type Of Generative AI-Powered Assistant; Details Here

Amazon Web Services, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. company on Tuesday announced Amazon Q, a new type of generative artificial intelligence powered assistant that is specifically for work and can be tailored to a customer’s business. 

The announcement was made in Las Vegas at an annual conference the company hosts for its AWS cloud computing service.

Amazon Web Services is infusing generative AI into more products, expanding its efforts to reclaim ground in a field led by its main rivals, Bloomberg reported. Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have announced similar moves. 

"Amazon Q provides information and advice to employees to streamline tasks, accelerate decision making and problem solving, and help spark creativity and innovation at work," the company said in a statement.

"Designed to meet enterprise customers’ stringent requirements, Amazon Q can personalize its interactions to each individual user based on an organization’s existing identities, roles, and permissions. Additionally, Amazon Q never uses business customers’ content to train its underlying models," it added.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon Q will be available for developers who use the company’s cloud. It will also be added to Amazon’s business intelligence software, as well as programs for call-center workers and logistics managers.

The company said the assistant can be customized to consider corporate data or an individual’s profile. To start, Q will cost $20 per user, per month.

Existing chatbots powered by generative AI are “genuinely super useful for consumers,” AWS Chief Executive Officer Adam Selipsky said at re:Invent, the company’s conference in Las Vegas.

“But in a lot of ways, these applications don’t really work at work.”

Amazon also released new versions of its homegrown chips, including one designed for AI applications, and deepened its relationship with Nvidia Corp., a leading supplier of AI chips.

“Generative AI has the potential to spur a technological shift that will reshape how people do everything from searching for information and exploring new ideas to writing and building applications,” said Dr. Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Data and Artificial Intelligence.