Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has emphasised the importance of generative artificial intelligence in the company’s annual year-end letter to shareholders.
According to Andy Jassy, the significance of GenAI isn’t just about Amazon’s profits, but for the entire technological landscape. His comments reflect a growing recognition of the power of GenAI among tech workers.
The company reported a 12% year-on-year revenue growth, reaching a staggering $575 billion. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud division that manages the generative AI side of operations, reported slightly higher revenue growth of 13% year over year. The division’s income of $91 billion accounted for 15.8% of the company’s accounts.
In the letter, Andy Jassy wrote, “Generative AI may be the largest technology transformation since the cloud (which itself, is still in the early stages), and perhaps since the Internet.”
Andy Jassy highlighted that while migrating to the cloud requires a significant effort, adding generative AI to existing cloud infrastructure is comparatively simple.
“The amount of societal and business benefit from the solutions that will be possible will astound us all,” he added.
Harnessing the full potential of generative AI is not an easy task. Amazon’s CEO, Jassy, recognised the technology’s high demand for computing resources, software services, and infrastructure.
Looking forward, Jassy emphasised the significance of collaboration and diversity in the AI landscape. He added that the vast majority of GenAI applications will ultimately be developed by other companies.
In the last financial year, the company made efforts to reduce costs, which included layoffs. However, towards the end of the year, the situation improved due to investments in in-house components.
The Amazon CEO has stated that the company will continue to reduce costs, indicating that further measures of efficiency, including layoffs, could be implemented. The recent layoffs by Amazon have only affected a few hundred employees, which is significantly less than previous efforts.