AWS announces general availability of its gen AI assistant, Amazon Q

Amazon has announced the expansion of its enterprise-focused AI assistant, Amazon Q. Launched in November 2023, this AI chatbot was crafted to provide both generative and analytical support based on the company's proprietary data. Initially, it was accessible to a limited group of users, but Amazon has now opened it to a wider audience and introduced new functionalities.

Notably, businesses can now access two distinct chatbots—Amazon Q Developer and Amazon Q Business—each tailored for different purposes. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon's cloud computing platform, announced in a newsroom post that both Amazon Q Developer and Amazon Q Business are now available to enterprise customers who use AWS services. The AI chatbot can learn from a company's data and workflows, offering assistance with coding tasks and business analytics.

Dr. Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Artificial Intelligence and Data at AWS said, “Since we announced the service at re:Invent, we have been amazed at the productivity gains developers and business users have seen. Early indications signal Amazon Q could help our customers’ employees become more than 80% more productive at their jobs; and with the new features we’re planning on introducing in the future, we think this will only continue to grow.”

Amazon Q Developer is designed to support software developers by automating 'tedious and repetitive tasks' like coding, testing, application updates, troubleshooting, security scans and fixes, as well as optimizing AWS resources.

Whereas, Amazon offers Amazon Q Business, for analytical tasks, which can understand and process natural language queries and prompts. Using a business's internal data stored on AWS servers, this tool can answer questions, create summaries, generate content, write reports, and provide data-driven analysis. Amazon Q is also being integrated into Amazon QuickSight, AWS's cloud-based Business Intelligence service. 

In addition, Amazon has a feature called Amazon Q Apps, which is currently in preview and not yet widely available. This feature allows employees to create AI-powered applications using the company's data, even if they have no prior coding experience. By providing a basic description of the app and the tasks it should accomplish, the AI chatbot can build the app from start to finish. This simplifies the process of app development for employees without a technical background.