Amazon CEO Andy Jassy released his annual letter to shareholders on Thursday — and yes, AI was a major theme.
Jassy said in the letter that generative AI “may be the largest technology transformation since the cloud,” and maybe even “since the internet.”
“The amount of societal and business benefit from the solutions that will be possible will astound us all,” Jassy said in the letter.
But Jassy also reminded shareholders not to underestimate the importance of security in AI.
“Customers’ AI models contain some of their most sensitive data,” Jassy said.
Jassy also said Amazon is on track to launch Project Kuiper internet satellites later this year and he’s encouraged by the progress, although it still has a long way to go. The $10 billion project is projected to create a constellation of more than 3,200 satellites within the next six years.
Amazon’s CEO said the company focuses on its AI efforts with a three-layered approach: building foundational models, leveraging existing ones, and utilizing pre-built gen AI applications depending on their needs and expertise.
At the core of staying successful and resilient, Jassy said the company relies on its five key principles, which include hiring builders who push boundaries, focusing on customer problems, and building foundational tools to accelerate innovation.
It also includes embracing better tech, regardless of where it came from, and learning from failures.
Amazon’s CEO also said the company is continuing to reevaluate cost-cutting while delivering products faster for customers.
“As we look toward 2024 (and beyond), we’re not done lowering our cost to serve,” Jassy wrote. “We’ve challenged every closely held belief in our fulfillment network, and reevaluated every part of it, and found several areas where we believe we can lower costs even further while also delivering faster for customers.”
Amazon announced earlier in April it would be laying off hundreds of workers in its cloud division, AWS.
“There has never been a time in Amazon’s history where we’ve felt there is so much opportunity to make our customers’ lives better and easier,” Jassy said in closing.
You can read Jassy’s full letter to shareholders here.
