Amazon introduces custom AI capabilities in race against cloud rivals

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Amazon.com will let companies use their own generative artificial-intelligence models inside its AI app development platform, part of a package of moves the cloud-computing giant is launching to keep up with its rivals in AI. Amazon Web Services said “tens of thousands" of businesses are using Bedrock, its AI app development platform.

Giving companies the ability to add DIY models to Bedrock makes it easier for enterprise developers and data scientists to work together, said Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of AI and data at AWS. The Seattle-based company also released two new AI models on Tuesday, its Titan image-generator model, which can create images from text, and its Titan text-embeddings V2 model, which is designed for things like Q&A chatbots and making personalized recommendations.

As companies test and use generative AI for various tasks, many are building their own AI by customizing a vendor’s model, or tailoring an open-source model with their own data. Generative AI is expected to drive global information-technology spending to $5.06 trillion this year, an 8% increase from 2023, according to market research and advisory firm Gartner.

This adds to the urgency among cloud providers, software and device makers to offer AI-based products and services to enterprise clients. Amazon has fallen behind tech rivals in the AI race, though it has been trying to boost its standing with new offerings at AWS and its retail operations, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

AWS doesn’t have a defining AI partnership such as Microsoft’s with OpenAI, or Copilot, Microsoft’s generative AI assistant for its business software. In November AWS introduced Amazon Q, an AI chatbot for companies and developers, and it