In a recent exclusive interview, Matt Garman, the new CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), shared his insights on the company’s direction, focusing on generative AI, innovation, and the evolving cloud computing landscape. Garman, who joined Amazon as an intern in 2005 and rose through the ranks, brings a wealth of experience to his new role.
Reaffirming AWS’s Commitment to Startups and Innovation
Garman emphasized the importance of maintaining AWS’s appeal to developers and startups, which were crucial to the company’s early success. “We can’t lose that focus on the startups and the developers,” he stated, highlighting the need to balance this with serving larger enterprises and government sectors.
The new CEO also stressed the importance of continuous innovation in the face of rapid technological changes. “The pace of innovation is only going to accelerate, and so it’s just an emphasis that we have to also accelerate our pace of innovation, too,” Garman explained.
AWS’s Approach to Generative AI
Addressing the company’s strategy in the generative AI space, Garman defended AWS’s approach:
“We’d been looking at generative AI before it became a widely accepted thing… I think a bunch of people — our competitors — kind of raced to put chatbots on top of everything and show that they were in the lead of generative AI.”
Instead, AWS focused on building a platform that allows customers to integrate AI into their applications using their own data. This strategy materialized in the form of Bedrock, AWS’s AI service that offers access to various open and proprietary models.
Cost Reduction and Custom Silicon
Garman highlighted the company’s efforts to reduce the cost of AI inference, mentioning the upcoming release of the next generation of AWS’s custom Trainium chips later this year. “I’m really excited that we can really turn that cost curve and start to deliver real value to customers,” he said.
Q Developer and Q Business
The interview also touched on AWS’s AI-powered assistants, Q Developer and Q Business. Q Developer aims to help across the entire developer lifecycle, while Q Business focuses on aggregating and making searchable internal company data from various sources.
Open Source and Service Closures
Addressing AWS’s relationship with the open source community, Garman stated, “We love open source. We lean into open source.” He also explained the recent closure of some AWS services as a “cleanup” effort, emphasizing the importance of focusing resources on services that provide the most value to customers.
As AWS continues to evolve under Garman’s leadership, the company remains committed to innovation, cost-effectiveness, and maintaining its position as a leader in the cloud computing and AI spaces.
For more information on AWS services and updates, visit aws.amazon.com.