Amazon’s AI chatbot Q aims to help businesses with daily tasks

SHANNON LONGWORTH: WHILE YOU MIGHT WORRY ABOUT AI TAKING YOUR JOB, AMAZON WANTS IT TO MAKE YOUR JOB EASIER.

AMAZON HAS UNVEILED ITS LATEST AI-POWERED CHATBOT, CALLED Q, AND IT’S DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO HELP BUSINESSES WITH A VARIETY OF TASKS. THINK: SUMMARIZING DOCUMENTS, GENERATING EMAILS, AND ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT COMPANY POLICY.

ADAM SELIPSKY: “AMAZON Q IS ALSO YOUR BUSINESS EXPERT. Q HAS CONNECTIONS TO OVER 40 POPULAR ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS, SO EMPLOYEES ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION CAN ASK COMPLEX QUESTIONS AND GET DETAILED, ACCURATE, NUANCED ANSWERS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THEIR ROLE AT WORK.”

LONGWORTH: FOR EXAMPLE, Q CAN BE INTEGRATED WITH A COMPANY’S SLACK CHANNEL AND GOOGLE DRIVE. Q IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR PREVIEW.

AMAZON IS SOMEWHAT BEHIND IN THE GENERATIVE AI SPACE, AS OPENAI LAUNCHED CHATGPT ABOUT A YEAR AGO AND GOOGLE OPENED ACCESS TO BARD IN MARCH. AS OF EARLIER THIS MONTH, MICROSOFT WAS BOASTING *ITS* CHATBOT AS A TOOL FOR COMPANIES–COPILOT.

BUT, AMAZON *IS* IN THE AI RESEARCH RACE.

IN SEPTEMBER, AMAZON ANNOUNCED A 4-BILLION-DOLLAR INVESTMENT IN ANTHROPIC, THE STARTUP FOUNDED BY FORMER OPENAI EMPLOYEES. ANTHROPIC ALSO HAS A CHATBOT, CALLED CLAUDE.

Q’S LAUNCH COMES AS AMAZON WEB SERVICES ANNOUNCED THAT IT’S DEVELOPED TWO NEW CHIPS, CALLED GRAVITON4 AND THE TRAINIUM2–THE LATTER IS MEANT TO HELP CUSTOMERS TRAIN AI SYSTEMS.