The end of April saw the annual AWS Summit and Partner Summit in London.
Generative AI took centre stage across both summits with its continued widespread adoption being seen across all verticals and industries. More AWS services and tools announced for general availability (GA) including AWS Bedrock coming shortly to AWS’s London Region (eu-west-2). As well as additional features for AWS Bedrock including tools to better support importing, guardrails for third-party language models and features to help with evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs).
It was fantastic to hear from so many businesses, first-hand, how they are using Generative A.I. to enhance their business and accelerate their development, be that technical or business outcomes.
Some particular highlights were hearing from the Premier League or how they use Generative AI to better understand their global audience through Next-Gen Digital Analytics. Hearing from CoolPlanet on how they are using Generative A.I. to deliver real Carbon Reduction outcomes for their customers and being able to exponentially accelerate their customers' journey. Hearing how Bosch is using IoT combined with Generative A.I. to operate an impressive predictive maintenance model.
While these are some specific use cases (and there were many others), there were many common scenarios of Generative AI being used across all verticals and industries. Some of these are:
- Next-Generation Digital Analytics
- Data-Driven Customer Experience with Hyper-Personalisation
- Scalable Content Supply Chain
- Seamless Omnichannel Experience
- Unified Customer Profiles
Getting started with Generative A.I
With Generative AI being a once-in-a-generation technical evolvement, it is not surprising that many businesses are confused about where to start. It’s easy to see dozens of use cases of how Generative AI can drive efficiencies, add further value, add product enhancements, additional services and features. What is not so clear is identifying which one to prioritise or where to start.
The key is to map out all your ideas and thoughts. Understand the potential impact they will have on your business. From this select something small, specific and that you can see having a measurable impact to start with.
Work with an AWS Partner like Green Custard to do a ‘proof-of-concept’ to test the value before going all in on your selected objective. From a successful PoC, iterate and refine to get the optimal outcomes.
AWS Summit Highlights
One of my personal highlights of the summits every year is the opportunity to catch up with so many of our clients, partners, AWS colleagues and friends. It’s great to discuss their thoughts on the summit, how they plan on incorporating new learnings into their business roadmap and what else is top of mind in their field or vertical.
This year we also had the output of one of our ongoing relationships with Britvic and Aqua Libra, not only at the show but in use as a drinks option for attendees; the Aqua Libra Flavour Tap.
It was great to see attendees naturally selecting and using the IoT-enabled sustainable drinks machine. Not only offering a range of healthy drinks but also providing a zero plastic drinks option at the event.
Along with Generative AI, Sustainability, Industry, Security, Retail and CX were also running trends across both days.
Future Summits
AWS Summits are held in multiple countries, mostly annually. Free to attend, they are packed with talks, exhibits and opportunities to network.