Why AWS’s AI strategy is a sprint

Over the past decade, cloud hyperscalers have competed fiercely for customers, market share and public opinion. They battle to stand out because enterprises generally prefer to use a single, favored cloud provider for simplicity — one provider means a single invoice, set of APIs, management portal and integrated set of services.

Once settled on a favored cloud provider, moving to an alternative platform is possible but challenging. Companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) need to win customers in the early stages of development, before the application becomes too complex and cloud-specific to easily migrate. With widespread experimentation in AI, cloud providers are eager to meet demand now, while the growth opportunity is there. The use of AI services stimulates consumption of other services too, delivering other revenue streams that cloud providers do not want to miss out on.