Amazon is mostly known to the mainstream public as an e-commerce giant. However, the company also established itself as an internet giant thanks to its AWS (Amazon Web Services) suite that offers servers and tools for cloud-based computing. Now, the firm seems to want to take artificial intelligence more seriously. In line with that, Amazon reportedly set up a new group focused on developing agentic experiences.
Amazon’s latest moves seem to point to an even stronger commitment to artificial intelligence. The company recently announced Alexa+ as an AI-powered upgrade for its classic assistant, now offering conversational capabilities and some “agentic” features. However, it seems that the company wants to take it a step further.
Amazon wants to focus more on creating agentic AI, report claims
As reported by Reuters, there’s a new AI-focused development group at Amazon. The team will be in charge of developing artificial intelligence agents. If you’re not aware, AI agents are the next “evolutionary step” in AI experiences. Current assistants are limited to doing things as and when you tell them to. However, AI agents can be more proactive and “make” decisions. Their main goal is to automate parts of your day-to-day life by being less involved in the process, leaving you with more free time.
Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, said in an email that agentic AI has the potential to be “the next multi-billion business for AWS.” It’s noteworthy that Alexa+ is a sort of “teaser” to Amazon’s long-term intentions. The improved assistant offers some features labeled as “agentic.” For example, in the official demo, Alexa+ was able to book Uber rides on its own. It was also able to navigate websites. The “Deep Research” features that some big AI platforms are getting also qualify as such. After all, they do their own research on a specific topic and present it in the form of a white paper-like report.
According to Reuters, Swami Sivasubramanian is the head of Amazon’s new agentic AI group. Sivasubramanian has a long history on the AWS team, serving as a key part of the firm’s artificial intelligence and data handling teams. The executive will report directly to Matt Garman on developments within the group.
“We have the opportunity to help our customers innovate even faster and unlock more possibilities, and I firmly believe that AI agents are core to this next wave of innovation,” Garman wrote in the email.
Experiences for users and businesses
Lastly, it seems that Amazon wants to create agentic AI experiences for both normal users and businesses. The firm could launch workflow automation and optimization tools, for example.
2025-03-06 15:06:56