Amazon CEO says generative AI will ‘change every customer experience’

In an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said generative artificial intelligence will change the customer experience in the company’s enterprise and discretionary consumer business. “Generative AI is going to change every customer experience, and it’s going to make it much more accessible for everyday developers, and even business users, to use,” he said. “So I think there’s going to be a lot of societal good.” Amazon prides itself on its ability to predict what customers want to buy, but Jassy said generative AI will further improve those processes. The new technology will also make Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, more advanced, he added. “If you’ve studied generative AI and you’re still scoffing, you’re really not paying attention,” Jassy said. “We think we have a real opportunity to be the leader there, and we’re in the process of building a much more expansive large language model underneath Alexa that will make her both much more knowledgeable and much more conversational.” Jassy acknowledged that there are potential dangers of AI, saying businesses should invest in security and make sure their large language models aren’t hallucinating. But to him, it’s not necessary to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Amazon Web Services announced in June it would invest $100 million in a center to help companies use generative AI. In late November, the company launched a new chatbot called Q, its latest effort to keep up with rival tech giants Microsoft and Google in the productivity software field.