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It was kind of a unknown AWS re : forge this workweek in Las Vegas . Once again , there was n’t a hugeamount of newscoming out of the massive customer event ; the biggest proclamation were related to AI , of course . But the real story could be that Amazon has see itself in the uncomfortable position of chasing Microsoft when it comes to AI .
And that ’s in spite ofthe dramatic event that play out at OpenAIlast calendar week , in which Microsoft was squarely in the middle .
The contention became clear when Amazon CEO Adam Selipsky took somenot - so - elusive cheap shotsat AWS ’ cloud rival during the main keynote on Tuesday .
To be clear , being behind , if that ’s what ’s happen , is not of necessity fatal for Amazon . It has dominated the cloud sinceit invented the ideain 2006 . And the reproductive AI landscape painting is still so nascent , and the market is shifting so quickly , that the percept among investors and some in the media , that Microsoft is ahead , could be arguable in 12 or 18 month .
Like last year , thetruly newsworthy announcementswere slight with perhaps the most interesting beingAmazon Q. It help developers connect a procreative AI bed to enterprise computer software and was being bill by some at the event as Amazon ’s answer to Microsoft Copilot . And that could give credenza to the idea that the cloud giant is , in fact , play catch - up here .
Scott Raney , a partner at Redpoint , says that Microsoft made a couple of great moves , like buyingGitHub for $ 7.5 billionin 2018 and investingat least $ 10 billion in OpenAI . That has put it in a good situation to take advantage of the reproductive AI moving ridge party have been riding this year .
“ This might be the first time where people looked and state that Amazon is n’t in the pole position to capitalize on this monolithic opportunity . What Microsoft ’s done around Copilot and the fact Q comes out [ this week ] means that in realness , they ’re absolutely 100 % playing catch - up , ” Raney suppose .
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He does n’t inevitably think that shift the dynamic of the cloud mart in any pregnant way , whereAWS has dominatedfor years . But it also does n’t change the fact that Microsoft has put itself in a strong billet to take reward of new AI applied science .
Of naturally , the whole family relationship between Amazon and Microsoft is much more complex than it might come along on the surface . “ First of all , the relationship between Microsoft and Amazon is more nuanced . It ’s not enemy . It ’s frenemies , ” say Jon Turow , a partner at investment funds firm Madrona , who formerly spend almost a X at AWS .
He point to Amazon’s$1 billion sight with Microsoftfor Office 365 as substantiation that the relationship is more elusive than it appear , but that does n’t mean the company are n’t vie ferociously for enterprise affection and nous .
The two caller seem to be take dissimilar paths to AI , with Microsoft hitching its wagon firmly to OpenAI . This gives them a couple of advantages with initiative customers . For starters , it has accession to the internals of how OpenAI operate and is building that into Office 365 , Bing and GitHub . Further , it ’s running OpenAI on sky-blue server , giving it an even deeper understanding of how OpenAI operates at scurf . That ’s something that is clearly stick CIOs ’ attention .
Amazon has select a dissimilar approachwith Bedrock , the caller ’s AI foundation engine , which is an API - based way to plug into a variety of large speech theoretical account beyond OpenAI , while trying to captivate the gist of developer .
“ The strength , the resonance of Bedrock , is that it say that Amazon is going to have the broadest selection of world - class models , ” Turow aver . “ And that ’s not just a statement about the models that are there today , which everybody agrees are early solar day and nascent . But rather it ’s a marker about where the market is going . ” He consider that this sends a unassailable signaling to CEOs and CIOsthat framework flexibilityis the fashion to go .
select a vendor often depends on many broker , including with whom the company already works . “ I call up a lot of it is a conversation from a CIO perspective about what ’s the current relationship with those cloud providers because [ probability are ] you ’re going to be in a hybrid , multi - cloud environs with some on prem , some in the swarm , with different swarm providers , ” said Jim Rowan , strategy and analytics portfolio leader at Deloitte . His fellowship helps enterprise customer evaluate and carry out their generative AI projection .
“ And so what ’s your strategy roadmap ? How are you cumulate that ? ” he demand . To Rowan , it ’s really about focus on traditional consulting problem , ones that client have to plan carefully because they will continue to have to deal these projects over meter , whether it ’s AI or swarm .
It ’s still very early , and as initiative buyers retain to attend at generative AI , they are run to explore a diversity of options , assay to assert flexibility and avoid vender whorl - in , just as they have done in the swarm . Yet the come-on of this engineering science is so potent that companies are hoping to get an edge of their own .
Microsoft seems to have succeed the perception battle , at least for now . But as Amazon builds out its portfolio of generative AI engineering , that gap could close promptly . For the time being , it await like Amazon has to play from behind , and it will be a big tryout for the company in terms of how it reacts to that pressure sensation in the months forwards .
