Why AI Is The New Battleground For AWS

It’s official. The first sun of 2018 brought something for everyone, but for cloud providers like AWS, it was the dawn of a long and lengthy battle in one of the more exciting technology fields.

One that will be fought throughout the year, between the leading cloud platforms on the planet.

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Engine.

We have known for quite some time that AWS is now serious about artificial intelligence. This bullish sentiment was plainly evident when CEO Andy Jassy fielded a wide array of questions on AI technology in an hour-long press briefing following his keynote.

Competitors Microsoft and Google already have the lead in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, but Amazon is catching up fast here.

AWS not only unveiled a whole range of new services centered around these concepts, but the company also argues that for AI and ML to be successful, a right foundation is absolutely necessary — a reliable, secure, and feature-rich foundation.

Cloud providers have to offer excellence in domains like access control, key management, and security compliance. And that’s not even talking about the compute power, GPUs, and analytics.

Basically, everything the Amazon Web Services platform provides.

In droves.

That said, having solidified its cloud lead with several large deals and partnerships recently, AWS has shifted attention towards AI and is betting big time on technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Timely, too, as this is an area that is gaining momentum.

McKinsey Global Institute believes that the total investment into the AI sector is growing, with companies investing between $26 billion to $39 billion in this. In fact, venture capitalists are at the forefront here, having invested anywhere from $4 billion to $5 billion in AI in 2016.

A figure that is more than three times as much as what was invested in 2013.

Amazon believes that it collectively has what it takes to be successful in artificial intelligence. And with the recent investments, the company is on the right track to offer the broadest range of AI and ML services that differentiate it from its immediate competitors.

How the company fares in this fledgeling field may well be the story of 2018.