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☆ This chart shows one potential advantage AWS's AI chips have over Microsoft and Google
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-26 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewBig tech cloud providers have been investing in their own homegrown AI chips lately, in hopes of replicating Nvidia's success. Amazon Web Services have worked on Trainium and Inferentia processors for several years, while Google unveiled its sixth generation TPU line of AI chips this year. Davidson, AWS's AI chips may have one potential advantage: more regional availability. Regional deployment rate of AI chips by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google D.A. The company has doubled down on its silicon business lately, but its AI chips have so far seen mixed results against Nvidia's dominance.

Persons: —, Maia, Gil Luria, Davidson, AWS's, Luria, Microsoft's Maia, Patrick Neighorn, we're Organizations: Service, Services, Google, Microsoft, Business, D.A, Davidson, AWS, Nvidia's

☆ Leaked email shows Twitch is not following Amazon's new RTO policy
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-25 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Go to newsletter preferences Thanks for signing up! download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementThe first big exception to Amazon's strict RTO policy is here. Twitch, the video streaming company Amazon acquired in 2014, will not be following the new RTO mandate, according to an internal email obtained by Business Insider. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wrote in the email that the new changes in Amazon's RTO policy "do not apply to Twitch."

Persons: —, Dan Clancy Organizations: Amazon, Service, Business, Twitch

☆ Amazon's Bedrock success prompts a surprising question: Do you need a top model to win in AI?
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-24 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewSo far, the generative AI race has been about who can build the most powerful models. Almost two years later, there are so many powerful AI models out there, it's no longer that special. Advertisement'Important but not critical'AWS CEO Matt Garman appears to be fine not having a fancy, home-grown AI model. "It'll be important but not critical," Garman said when asked about the importance of offering a top-performing first-party AI model. AGI teamThis doesn't mean Amazon has given up on building its own powerful AI model.

Persons: —, Claude, Meta's, Matt Murphy, Anthropic, Murphy, ChatGPT, Patrick Neighorn, Amazon's, Andy Jassy, Matt Garman, Garman, Matt McIlwain, Brent Thill, Jefferies, Thill Organizations: Service, Google, Business, Microsoft, OpenAI, Gemini, Menlo Ventures, AWS, Intuit, Toyota, New York Stock Exchange, BI, Asia, Madrona Venture Group, Amazon Locations: Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Japan, North America

☆ Audible is following Amazon's strict new RTO policy, but with a delay
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-23 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Employees at Amazon subsidiary Audible have a different deadline to comply with the new RTO policy. Amazon corporate employees must return to the office 5 days a week starting in January. Amazon's varied RTO timelines highlight challenges in standardizing policies across its businesses. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementAmazon's corporate employees must be in the office 5 times a week starting in January.

Persons: —, Bob Carrigan Organizations: Amazon, Service, Employees, Business Locations: Newark

☆ Internal memo reveals new Amazon bonuses for selling flagship AI products
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-23 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AWS offers its salespeople new incentives for selling AI products Q and Bedrock. AWS sales teams have specific performance targets for AI products. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Amazon Web Services recently put a new incentive program in place for its flagship AI products, Q and Bedrock, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider. In cloud computing and enterprise software, companies maintain massive sales teams that market to corporate customers and help them integrate technology offerings.

Persons: — Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Service, Web Services, Business

☆ Amazon's strict new RTO rule creates an awkward situation for One Medical
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-17 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon's One Medical recently rolled out a new hybrid work approach. It was different from Amazon's mandate for corporate employees to be in the office five days a week. Go to newsletter preferences Thanks for signing up! download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementOne Medical may have been the first big exception to Amazon's strict new RTO mandate.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, Medical, Business

☆ Inside Amazon's new AI sales machine: More pressure, more pay, more speed
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-16 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

AdvertisementThese AWS staffers were asked to find at least one sales opportunity each month for Q, Amazon's AI assistant, and Bedrock, the company's AI platform. AdvertisementMany AWS sales teams have new performance targets tied to AI products. AdvertisementHitting these goals is important for Amazon employees because that can result in higher performance ratings, a key factor in getting a raise or promotion. The "Find One, Launch One, Ramp One" initiative includes AWS sales architects. More pressure but also more rewardsAmazon is also doling out bonuses and other forms of potentially higher pay for AI sales success.

Persons: —, Matt Garman, salespeople, AWS's, Garman, Microsoft Satya Nadella, Justin Sullivan, Q, hasn't Organizations: Service, North, Business, AWS, Messaging, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, BI, there's, Amazon Connect Locations: North America

☆ The race in Big Tech to sell customers on AI products is heating up
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-16 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Meanwhile, in today's newsletter, we're looking at how AWS is ramping up its sales team to pitch customers on AI . The big storySell, sell, sellAmazon; Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BIWhen it comes to the AI revolution, building is only half the battle. AdvertisementAfter drawing scrutiny from investors about their massive investments in generative AI, tech companies are prioritizing getting returns on their big bets. Amazon; OpenAI; Microsoft; Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BIAWS' pressure to ramp up AI sales isn't just focused on ROI. And while these companies can't afford not to pitch their customers on AI tech, they also risk turning them off to the idea by selling them products that might not live up to expectations.

Persons: —, Donald Trump, Trump, Alyssa Powell, Insider's Eugene Kim, Eugene, Chelsea Jia Feng, it's, Anna Kim, Getty, Tyler Le, Martha Stewart, Al Capone, Morgan Stanley, Dre, Jeff Chiu, Larry Page's, Wayne Osborne, Elon, Grimes, Ryan Mac, Kate Conger unearths, Musk, Department's, We've, Kamala Harris, Biden, Booker, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Milan Sehmbi, Amanda Yen Organizations: Service, FBI, Business, Amazon Web Services, that's, AWS, Microsoft, Getty, Google, Sunshine, Twitter, Huber & Starke, Hollywood, Teamsters Locations: West Palm Beach , Florida, today's, Florida, hustles, New York, London

☆ Leaked messages show early challenges for Amazon's big AI product and concern about losing customers to Microsoft
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-05 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Amazon Q, a big new AI product, faces issues such as high costs and lack of features. Neighorn told BI that Amazon had clear pricing for Amazon Q and that customers could use the AWS Pricing Calculator to calculate Amazon Q charges. "Amazon Q only launched in April, and we continue to add new features based on customer feedback," Neighorn said. "Amazon Q has a rapidly growing customer base that is using Q for a variety of use cases." AdvertisementFor now, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy may be the biggest salesperson for Amazon Q.

Persons: —, Q, It's, Slack, Q's, AWS's, Microsoft's Copilot, Patrick Neighorn, Neighorn, Matt Garman, Garman, Andy Jassy, Jassy Organizations: Amazon, Service, Web Services, Business, Microsoft, Google, ChatGPT, BI, Microsoft's Exchange, Bayer, Smartsheet, National Australia Bank, AWS, Q, LinkedIn Locations: North

☆ Leaked Amazon documents reveal 9 top factors customers consider before buying AI models and services
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-28 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AWS wants to focus on cloud infrastructure and AI foundation models, not AI chatbots. The guidelines, which Business Insider obtained, also list nine important factors customers consider before purchasing generative-AI models and services. Amazon; InsiderHere are the nine factors:AdvertisementCustomization: The ability to tailor AI models for specific requirements (e.g., the style of a model's outputs). The ability to tailor AI models for specific requirements (e.g., the style of a model's outputs). Advertisement"AWS has more generative AI services than any other cloud provider, which is why our AI services alone have a multi-billion dollar run rate," the spokesperson added.

Persons: —, Matt Garman, It's Organizations: Service, AWS, Web

☆ Google says 'we're flattered they're worried about us,' after Amazon sales guidelines diss rival's AI capabilities
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-27 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon's AI sales guidelines criticize rivals including Google and Microsoft. AdvertisementAmazon has internal sales guidelines that deride the AI capabilities of some of its biggest rivals, including Google. But OpenAI's explosive popularity gave it a head start in generative AI; the internal sales guidelines indicate some AWS customers launched their first AI projects using OpenAI's technology instead of AWS's. "It's no secret that generative AI is an extremely competitive space. AWS has more generative AI services than any other cloud provider, which is why our AI services alone have a multi-billion dollar run rate," the Amazon spokesperson said.

Persons: —, We're, they're, doesn't, Atle Erlingsson, Erlingsson, It's Organizations: Google, Microsoft, Service, Amazon Web, Business, AI, Amazon

☆ Internal Amazon sales guidelines spread doubt about OpenAI capabilities while bad-mouthing Microsoft and Google
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-26 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Other talking points from the documents include OpenAI's lack of access to third-party AI models and weak enterprise-level contracts. "For generative AI workloads, AWS will compete most often w/ Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service, OpenAI (directly), and Google Cloud's Generative AI on Vertex AI," one of the documents said. Instead, Amazon has prioritized selling AI tools like Bedrock, which gives customers access to third-party AI models. The sales guidelines also outline how AWS sales reps should respond to customers' questions about Microsoft and Google. In situations where Microsoft pitches its AI-powered analytics software, Fabric, to customers, AWS salespeople are instructed to say, "Microsoft Fabric is a new (unproven) offering."

Persons: —, It's, isn't, ChatGPT, OpenAI, OpenAI's, Sam Altman, Jason Redmond, Claude, Satya Nadella, Justin Sullivan, Maia, We're, they're, doesn't, Atle Erlingsson Organizations: Microsoft, Google, AWS, Service, Business, OpenAI, Amazon, Nvidia, Getty, Meta, Amazon's, AI, Fortune Locations: AFP

☆ Amazon is raising its hiring bar for some tech jobs
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-06 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewAmazon is raising its hiring bar. Bar raisers have long been a peculiar part of Amazon's hiring process. But Amazon removed bar raiser interviews for entry-level engineering jobs and some non-engineering roles in recent years, in part due to the pandemic-fueled hiring boom, BI previously reported. Related storiesBy resuming the bar raiser program, Amazon is adding an additional 60-minute step to the interview process for these jobs, the memo said. Amazon will also share any interview process changes with the Bar Raiser Core Community and request their opinions on those changes.

Persons: —, We're, Margaret Callahan Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon, Amazon University Talent, BI, Core Locations: Americas, Asia, Europe

☆ The GenAI jitters: Is there enough demand for $1 trillion in AI spending?
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-02 | by ( Alistair Barr | Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AdvertisementBig tech companies are forecast to spend $1 trillion on data centers, real estate, chips and other gear to build AI models, tools and products. AdvertisementSome big tech companies have already whittled away a large chunk of their cash reserves chasing this AI trend. For more than a year, the assumption has been that generative AI will stoke a massive wave of new demand. What if that demand turns out to be weaker than expected? A major piece of evidence he shared was about demand for Microsoft's 365 Copilot service.

Persons: —, Ashley Stewart, I've, Ashley, Keith Weiss, Morgan Stanley, Weiss, Andy Jassy, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, BI's Ashley Stewart, Nadella Organizations: Service, Business, pharma, Big, Microsoft, stoke, Amazon, Google, CIO

☆ Amazon decision to deprioritize 7 cloud services caught customers and even some salespeople by surprise
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-01 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewAmazon's recent decision to stop accepting new users for several cloud services caught some customers, partners and even a few employees by surprise. No new customers, no new featuresFor a business as important as AWS, deprioritizing services is a tricky balancing act. However, at the scale of AWS, this still means that thousands of developers and other customers likely still rely on these cloud tools. "We will continue to support our customers, whether they continue to use these services, or they migrate to other AWS offerings or alternative third-party solutions." Consider Amazon Q, Amazon Connect, Amazon Bedrock, AWS Marketplace, Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon QuickSight, and many other offerings that have had significant success with customers," he wrote in an email.

Persons: —, Jeff Barr, Patrick Neighorn, Neighorn, Randall Hunt, Horovits Organizations: Service, Business, Web Services, AWS, Data Pipeline, Barr's, Amazon Connect

☆ Amazon has discussed a 'DoctorAI' tool to automate routine healthcare tasks
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-31 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewAmazon's One Medical team has discussed building a new large language model called "DoctorAI" to automate routine healthcare tasks, according to an internal planning document obtained by Business Insider. In one section, the One Medical team discusses their most disruptive ideas, and this is where the new AI tool was proposed. Big foundation models are often used as a starting point to develop more focused, specialized AI models and tools. "We do not use our customers' protected health information to train our current health AI models, and to imply we do would be incorrect." It also hoped to handle 87,000 customer service contacts in 2024 through "additional self-service content and the AI healthcare assistant service," the document stated.

Persons: —, Andy Jassy, Rohit Prasad, Sunita Mishra Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon Pharmacy, Olympus, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Amazon Web Services

☆ Amazon projected huge losses from its healthcare business in 2024, but strong sales growth, internal document reveals
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-30 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Read previewLate last year, Amazon projected its healthcare businesses to lose more than $1 billion for 2024, according to an internal planning document obtained by Business Insider. Although the company doesn't breakout financials on the healthcare business, investors will be looking for signs of success when it reports results on Thursday. That was mostly thanks to Amazon Pharmacy, which was projected to generate $1.81 billion in 2024 sales, a 45% surge. Amazon healthcare is slowing investments in smaller initiatives by delaying hiring for certain projects and reducing contractor spend, it added. It's upgrading the signup process, such as insurance card capture technology, and simplifying the linking between One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy accounts.

Persons: —, Andy Jassy, Brand, Neil Lindsay, It's Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon, Pharmacy, Amazon Health Services, Tech, Amazon Pharmacy, Health Services, Health, Amazon Clinic, Google

☆ Google drops Amazon's One Medical
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewFor years, Google was the largest business customer of One Medical, the primary care provider Amazon acquired for $3.9 billion. Since purchasing One Medical, Amazon has embarked on a number of cost-cutting moves, including layoffs and office closures, as BI previously reported. That means Google's health insurance will be accepted at One Medical offices, though Google employees will have to pay for their own memberships going forward. Advertisement"One Medical is proud of the care we have provided to Google employees at a small number of locations on Google campuses, virtually, and in our hundreds of community offices near where many Google employees live, work, and shop," Amazon's spokesperson said in a statement. In a statement to BI, Amazon's spokesperson said One Medical continues to see "very strong growth," while Amazon's broader healthcare business is "growing robustly."

Persons: — Organizations: Service, Google, Amazon, Business, ONEM, Care, BI, Health

☆ Amazon's work email went down and warehouses experienced brief disruptions due to the CrowdStrike outage
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-19 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon's internal services were hit by the global IT outage linked to CrowdStrike on Friday. Employees faced email issues and blue screens; some warehouses had brief outages. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementSeveral internal Amazon services were impacted by the global IT outage tied to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike on Friday, Business Insider has learned. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, CrowdStrike Organizations: Employees, Service, Business, BI

☆ From Amazon to Dell, Corporate America's in-office crackdown is in full swing
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-17 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, Amazon wants to stop employees skirting in-office mandates by tracking their hours spent in the office . The big storyPunching the clockGetty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BIAt Amazon, coffee is for closers people who spend at least 2 hours in the office. AdvertisementBusiness Insider's Eugene Kim has a report on Amazon monitoring the hours its corporate employees spend in the office . Amazon and its employees have been in an ongoing battle over its return-to-office mandate, which was first announced early last year. AdvertisementFor Amazon employees, the RTO mandates have been shrouded in mystery and confusion.

Persons: —, you've, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Eugene Kim, it's, Eugene, they've, Justin Sullivan, Getty, Dell, Polly Thompson, Lizzie Reed, Goldman Sachs, Mark McQueen, Elizabeth Reed, Donald Trump's, Fundstrat's Tom Lee, Russell, Deena So'Oteh, Greg Warnock, Warnock, Elon Musk, Tesla, Stephen Pasterino, Rachel Katzman's, Jennifer Aniston, Johnson, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, Annie Smith, Amanda Yen Organizations: Service, Denver Airport, Business, Amazon, Foods, Dell, Computer, Workers, Goldman, Walmart, Treasury, Netflix, SpaceX, Lone Star State, Northeast, BI, Olympic, United Airlines, Johnson Locations: it's, Corporate America, Utah, California, Texas, Paris, Seine, New York, London

☆ Amazon cracks down on 'coffee badging' employees by tracking individual hours spent in the office
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewAmazon is now monitoring the hours corporate employees spend in the office. This move is intended to crack down on people who are trying to skirt the company's return-to-office policy, Business Insider has learned. Coffee badging refers to employees who badge in, get coffee, and leave the office shortly to satisfy their return-to-office mandate. 'Like high school students'Many Amazon employees shared their frustrations with the new mandate, the Slack messages showed. One person wrote that people will act like high-school students "if you treat employees like high school students."

Persons: —, Slack, Andy Jassy, Margaret Callahan, haven't, Callahan, we're, Mike Blake, It's Organizations: Service, BI, Business, Amazon, Reuters, Owl Labs, WFH Research, Foods

☆ A Wall Street analyst who wrote a blistering open letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last year now sees big improvements
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-09 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

An analyst said Amazon addressed investor concerns, focusing on profitability and free cash flow. AdvertisementBernstein analyst Mark Shmulik wrote a brutal open letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last year expressing growing investor frustration with the company's spending. Now, after a little over a year, Shmulik said Amazon has addressed most investor concerns by making dramatic improvements across the company. "They made active decisions to focus on profitability and free cash flow expansion," Shmulik told Business Insider. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: Andy Jassy, —, Bernstein, Mark Shmulik, Shmulik Organizations: Service, Business

☆ Amazon's amazing turnaround: How Andy Jassy secretly wooed Wall Street and overhauled a bloated tech giant
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-08 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

This person is one of over a dozen Amazon employees, investors, and analysts that BI interviewed to better understand Jassy's first 3 years as CEO. Andy Jassy replaced Jeff Bezos (pictured here) as Amazon's CEO in July 2021. In his first 3 years as CEO, Jassy has lost many senior staff. Amazon's spokesperson said the company has "strong retention and continuity" among senior leaders. Amazon's spokesperson said the company is making "huge investments" in AI across AWS and the retail business.

Persons: —, Andy Jassy, Jeff Bezos, Jassy, Bezos, EMMANUEL DUNAND, Mark Shmulik, Bernstein, Bernstein's Shmulik, He's, Shmulik, Amazon's, That's, spokespeople, Jassy doesn't, Doug Herrington, Jay Carney, Dave Limp, Adam Selipsky, Dave Clark, Clark, Ted S, Babak Parviz, Parviz, Mark Mahaney, We're, Jeff Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon, Washington Post, BI, Warren, Echo, Microsoft, AWS Locations: Seattle

☆ Amazon is working on an AI assistant that competes with ChatGPT, codenamed 'Metis'
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewAmazon is working on an AI chatbot that competes directly with the OpenAI's ChatGPT, Business Insider has learned. The secret internal project is codenamed "Metis," likely in reference to the Greek goddess of wisdom. Metis is powered by an internal Amazon AI model called Olympus, another name inspired by Greek mythology. There are a lot of AI assistantsWith Metis, Amazon is joining an already crowded AI assistant market. Last month, Amazon even instructed some employees to help scrape GitHub's open-source data to speed up its AI model training process.

Persons: —, It's, OpenAI, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Amazon's, Rohit Prasad, Vishal Sharma, it's Organizations: Service, BI, Business, Metis, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Project Metis, Alexa Locations: Amazon's

☆ Amazon is secretly working on a ChatGPT killer
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewAmazon is working on an AI chatbot to compete directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT, Business Insider has learned. The secret internal project is code-named "Metis," likely in reference to the Greek goddess of wisdom. Metis is powered by an internal Amazon AI model called Olympus, another name inspired by Greek mythology. There are a lot of AI assistantsWith Metis, Amazon is joining an already crowded AI-assistant market. Vishal Sharma, the vice president of artificial general intelligence, has direct oversight of Project Metis, one of the people said.

Persons: —, OpenAI's, It's, OpenAI, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Amazon's, Rohit Prasad, Vishal Sharma, it's Organizations: Service, BI, Business, Metis, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Project Metis, Alexa Locations: Metis, Amazon's

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