Latest news with #AmazonBedrock
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SK Group and AWS Team Up to Build Cloud Computing Infrastructure to Support AI Innovation
SK Group, in partnership with AWS, will provide data center infrastructure for a new AWS AI Zone location in Ulsan that will support AI adoption 15-year strategic deal will expand SK Group and AWS capabilities for customers in South Korea The new AI Zone will give organizations in South Korea greater choice in onshore infrastructure with operations expected to begin in 2027 SK Group plans to scale capacity, with a vision to become a data center hub in Asia-Pacific (APAC) SEOUL, South Korea, June 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SK Group, South Korea's second-largest conglomerate, announced its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to expand cloud infrastructure in South Korea. SK Group, in partnership with AWS, will build a data center in Ulsan, South Korea for a new AWS AI Zone that will help organizations in South Korea build innovative and new AI applications locally while leveraging the full breadth of AWS capabilities. The AI Zone will bring together multiple innovative capabilities, including dedicated AWS AI infrastructure and servers with world-class semiconductors, UltraCluster networks for faster AI training and inference, AWS services like Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock, and AI application services such as Amazon Q to advance Korea's mission to be a world leader in AI. On June 20, SK Group and AWS held a signing ceremony for the establishment of the AI Zone in Ulsan, where both parties pledged cooperation for the successful launch of the project. Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group; Ryu Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom; Prasad Kalyanaraman, Vice President of Infrastructure Services at AWS; Jaime Valles, Vice President and General Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at AWS; and Ham Kee-ho, Country Managing Director of Korea at AWS attended the signing ceremony. The data center in Ulsan is scheduled to begin operations by 2027 and is expected to generate up to 78,000 direct and indirect jobs over time as the data center scales and operations expand. The AI Zone in Ulsan will combine industry-leading capabilities from SK Group and AWS through a 15-year partnership to provide top-tier network operations, a semiconductor supply chain, and efficient power infrastructure. This partnership is in addition to AWS's long-term US $5.88 billion (approx. 7.85 trillion won) planned investment in Korea by 2027. SK Group will lead the construction of the data center, while AWS will establish the AI Zone in Ulsan, which will deliver a broad selection of AWS's leading AI and cloud capabilities to customers in South Korea. The project brings together key SK Group affiliates, including SK Telecom, SK Broadband, SK hynix, SK Gas, SK Chemicals, SK multi utility and SK AX, uniting the Group's core competencies across ICT, energy, and semiconductors. Above all, Ulsan is considered the optimal location for the establishment of the AI Zone, as SK Group possesses a stable gas supply network, advanced energy solutions, and ideal sites in the region. In addition, Ulsan offers a favorable environment for submarine cables and is highly supportive of industrial activities. The AI Zone in Ulsan is designed to meet global performance and security standards. It features an AI-optimized computing system, ultra-high-density rack configurations, a hybrid cooling system combining air and liquid cooling, and a stable, robust network infrastructure. The SK Group and AWS partnership underscores a shared commitment to driving innovation in cloud computing infrastructure to support AI innovation. SK Group and AWS are expanding their strategic partnership and plan to pursue wide-ranging collaborations that will benefit customers, giving them the ability to meet the demand for rapidly growing generative AI with compute, storage, database and edge computing capabilities. The new cloud infrastructure is a part of the AI Infrastructure Superhighway strategy announced in 2024 by SK Telecom, which is involved in AI initiatives within SK Group. SK Group expects to establish a key hub for hyperscale AI infrastructure through the AI Infrastructure Superhighway project. SK Group plans to enhance data sovereignty and strengthen its global competitiveness in AI by processing AI workloads generated in South Korea directly within the country. "When SK Group's exceptional technical capabilities combine with AWS's comprehensive AI cloud services, we'll empower customers of all sizes, and across all industries here in Korea to build and innovate with safe, secure AI technologies," said Prasad Kalyanaraman, VP of Infrastructure Services at AWS. "This partnership represents our commitment to Korea's AI future, and I couldn't be more excited about what we'll achieve together." "We are pleased to combine the technological capabilities of SK Group with AWS, the world's leading cloud provider, to establish a core infrastructure for a Korean AI ecosystem and create a powerful new engine for 'AI highway,'" said Chey Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group. "Moving forward, SK will continue to build an AI data center hub in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region by leveraging the unique strengths of each affiliate and our global partnerships." About SK SK Group, South Korea's second-largest conglomerate, is a global technology leader delivering innovations to build the backbone for a new era of industry. Based in Seoul, SK has 198 companies and over 100,000 employees worldwide with a focus on developing and producing advanced solutions in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, energy and life sciences. SK businesses have a shared commitment to create economic value while having a positive impact on society. For more on SK, visit About Amazon Web Services Since 2006, Amazon Web Services has been the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any workload, and it now has more than 240 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, media, and application development, deployment, and management from 117 Availability Zones within 37 geographic regions, with announced plans for 13 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Chile, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit About Amazon Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth's Best Employer, and Earth's Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit and follow @AmazonNews. View original content: SOURCE SK Group; SK Telecom
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
I'm a former Amazon developer. Jassy's memo doesn't surprise me, and I don't think engineers should worry about their jobs.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 30-year-old Shahad Ishraq, from Germany. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Reading Andy Jassy's new memo on generative AI, I'm not surprised by anything. I worked at Amazon for nearly three and a half years and left in late May because of the 5-day RTO mandate. My commute took an hour and a half each way, so I wanted to move to another job where I could still see my career progressing and do interesting work. The memo feels consistent with what I'd been hearing from management and Jassy while working at Amazon. I think Jassy's comments are to show shareholders he's invested in the technology. I initially worried about AI when I wasn't as familiar with the products. However, using AI will give you a better understanding of what it's capable of and what skills you can develop to differentiate yourself. At Amazon, there were some eager adopters of AI and some skeptics I joined Amazon in 2022 as a systems development engineer, working in Leipzig, Germany. My day-to-day work involved designing and implementing software and performing operational tasks. When AI tools first came out a few years ago, we were told we could use them, but we should be very careful and follow the company's policies on their usage. Amazon is a huge company. Within it, I spotted and heard about different approaches to AI adoption. There seemed to be a bunch of excited early adopters who shared their findings with everyone. There were people like me who followed the first bunch and saw what went well. There were also some skeptics and a small number of engineers who were outright against using AI. For me, the dawn of AI was a bit scary at first. Everyone was saying it would put me out of a job. Unless you test the technology yourself and see what it can do, you'll fear the unknown. AI wasn't part of my job until sometime in 2024. There were also some barriers to using the technology. When I first joined Amazon, ChatGPT wasn't even available, but when it did come out in 2022 we couldn't use it that extensively because of data security issues that come with copying our code into those models. When Anthropic's Claude became available within Amazon Bedrock — the company's internal service for developing generative AI applications — we were able to make more use of AI. In my last few months at Amazon, I started experimenting a lot with approved AI tools, doing extensive tests with them. They don't do everything for me, but I've integrated these tools into my workflow, such as by asking it to create a plan for my tasks or spot differences between documents. I noticed it often fails, and I have to make changes, but overall, it has improved my speed and increased my throughput significantly. AI won't eliminate software engineers anytime soon Andy Jassy's memo feels very consistent with what I've been told internally before I left Amazon and what the company has communicated publicly. News articles talking about the memo focus on Jassy saying that a lot of jobs will be taken by AI. However, in the same sentence, he also says jobs will be created. I've tried creating production-level applications using AI, and it takes a lot of effort to get these products ready. A company like Amazon can't roll out an application that breaks and causes havoc. They have to have firewalls, checks, and tests. I don't see people going out of jobs in huge numbers soon. Amazon went on a hiring spree during COVID. If we see more layoffs, I think it will be associated with cutting back after that spree, rather than the impacts of AI. AI agents are helping out software engineers a lot, and the amount of work agents do will probably increase gradually. I'm able to get agents working on three different things, while I look into other tasks. But AI hallucinates quite a lot. It does things it's not asked to do. I often have to correct an AI agent producing code. Humans will be required to build guardrails and act as guardrails themselves. Implementing these guardrails will take time, and I think this will slow down the AI agent hype. There's nothing new in Jassy's memo I think Jassy's comments about AI are to show shareholders he's invested in the technology. Memos have to come out. Jassy has to place a lot of optimism around AI; otherwise, shareholders will think they're not doing anything with AI. My advice to Amazon employees is to start using AI as much as possible to overcome their fear of the unknown. I now work as a software engineer at a utilities company. The more I've been using AI, the more comfortable I feel about myself. I can see what skills I have that I can use to stay relevant. In tech, languages and developments come really fast. My guess is that people will need to use AI to write code and increase their throughput, and pure software engineers will gradually be replaced by people who have both software engineering and AI skills. I'm personally trying to learn these skills because I think they'll become more important. A spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider, "Amazon employees use internal generative AI tools every day to innovate on behalf of our customers. We have safeguards in place for employee use of these technologies, including restrictions on sharing confidential information with third-party generative AI services."
Techday NZ
4 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
NiCE & AWS deepen AI partnership to power CX automation
NiCE has announced an expansion of its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to drive intelligent automation through its CXone Mpower platform, introducing enhanced integration with various AWS artificial intelligence (AI) offerings. The collaboration aims to accelerate the deployment and scaling of AI-powered customer service solutions by combining NiCE's customer service automation expertise and interaction data with AWS's cloud and AI technology. The effort is focused on enabling end-to-end automation across enterprises using NiCE's CXone Mpower solution and AWS services like Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, and Amazon SageMaker. Expanded integration NiCE and AWS are integrating generative AI services across the CXone Mpower platform to enable automation throughout enterprise workflows. The initiative covers several use cases, including automated AI agent creation, intelligent workflow orchestration and real-time AI-supported guidance for employees. With the integration, Mpower Agents will allow businesses to deploy AI agents instantly and without coding or prompt engineering, tailored to each organisation's specific needs. Using Amazon Q index, these agents access the latest policy, product and case information for accurate responses. Training on rich customer experience data is enabled through Amazon SageMaker, ensuring continuous learning from best practices and high-performing interactions. The platform also features CXone Mpower Orchestrator, which integrates with Amazon Q Business to connect enterprise systems, applications and data. This functionality enables more personalised, seamless customer journeys by breaking down operational silos, delivering real-time decisions using the AWS Nova family of large language models for various objectives such as speed, accuracy and business impact. The CXone Mpower Copilot tool supports agents, supervisors and leaders with real-time AI-powered assistance, aiming to streamline tasks and support productivity. AWS's global infrastructure underpins this function, allowing deployments with low latency and high availability across different geographies. Leadership comments NiCE brings decades of deep customer service expertise, rich data and a proven AI-based foundation. AWS brings enhanced scale, infrastructure and generative AI innovation. Together, we're delivering enterprise-wide automation, turning vision into action across the front, middle and back office. Mpower Agents are just one example: AI-powered agents that deploy instantly, adapt in real time and operate with precision at scale. According to Barry Cooper, President of the CX Division at NiCE, the collaboration is designed to deliver broad automation and responsive AI agents that adjust and function efficiently at enterprise scale. Mila D'Antonio, Principal Analyst at Omdia, described the collaboration as an example of complementary capabilities, stating: "This collaboration is a textbook case of complementary strengths coming together: NiCE has the domain depth, the data, and the AI maturity in CX; AWS has the tools, infrastructure, and generative AI firepower. The result is innovation like Mpower Agents that are enterprise-ready, context-aware, and built to scale, delivering automation with both intelligence and impact." Customer reaction Taylor Mobley, Chief Revenue Officer at Bamboo Insurance commented on the partnership's impact: "This collaboration between NiCE and AWS is raising the bar for what's possible with AI in the enterprise. By combining deep expertise with powerful technology, it will help us move faster, work smarter, deliver more value across the board, and ultimately provide a better, more personalised experience for our customers." The director of customer experience at Vera Bradley, Susan Campbell, noted the partnership's ongoing evolution: "We're always excited to see the innovative things we can do with CXone Mpower... and we know CXone Mpower will evolve with us, so we can continue to improve the customer experience—even into the future. I feel like NiCE wants to make us a better version of ourselves. And there aren't a lot of other companies that really invest in thought leadership, especially around how AI will forever change the face of the contact center." AWS perspective Rohan Karmarkar, Managing Director, Partner Solution Architecture at AWS, said the partnership broadens the capabilities available to businesses: "At AWS, we're committed to providing the capabilities to help businesses with AI-powered transformations. By combining Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, and our Nova family of LLMs with NICE's CXone Mpower, we're enabling enterprises to deploy intelligent automation that's both powerful and purpose-built for real customer challenges. This collaboration with NICE demonstrates how AWS's generative AI capabilities can help accelerate innovation at scale across customer experience workflows." The announcement follows a trend among enterprise technology providers to incorporate generative AI features in customer experience platforms, seeking to streamline operations, improve accuracy, and personalise customer engagement through scalable technologies.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Code Platoon Launches New AI & Cloud DevOps Program to Meet Evolving Tech Workforce Demands
Updated curriculum and program name reflect the growing importance of AI and Cloud Engineering in technology roles. CHICAGO, June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Code Platoon, a nonprofit coding bootcamp for Veterans, active duty Servicemembers, and military families, is proud to announce the launch of its newly revamped AI Cloud and DevOps Engineering program. This update reflects a growing demand in the tech industry for professionals trained at the intersection of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and DevOps engineering. The first cohort under the new curriculum, AI Cloud and DevOps Delta Platoon, will run from October 13, 2025, to April 25, 2026. Applications are now open through August 17, 2025. "AI and Cloud are no longer niche—they're foundational," said Rodrigo Levy, Executive Director and Founder of Code Platoon. "As employers rapidly adopt cloud-native infrastructure and AI tools, they're looking for professionals who can build, automate, and scale with those technologies in mind. This updated program equips our students with the exact skills." Why AI and Cloud Now? The tech industry has shifted. According to LinkedIn's 2025 Emerging Jobs Report, roles in AI and cloud engineering are among the fastest-growing in the U.S., with job listings in machine learning operations (MLOps), cloud automation, and AI deployment up more than 40% year over year. Employers are increasingly integrating AI tools, such as AWS Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, into their workflows, and they need engineers who can keep pace with these developments. That's where Code Platoon's new program comes in. A Curriculum Designed for What's Next The AI Cloud and DevOps curriculum offers students hands-on experience with today's most widely used tools: AI tools: Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Bedrock, AWS AI services, Bedrock Agents Cloud & DevOps: Terraform, Ansible, GitHub Actions, Docker Data: SQL/NoSQL databases, full-stack cloud architecture Certifications: AWS AI Practitioner Certification Graduates will be ready to tackle complex, real-world problems, whether it's building automated cloud pipelines or deploying AI-powered applications. Adam Cahan, Program Director at Code Platoon, emphasized the need to stay ahead of industry trends: "We're not just teaching students how to configure servers—we're teaching them how to build intelligent, scalable systems. The new curriculum blends DevOps with applied AI so that our grads can go into a team and immediately add value." Bridging the Skills Gap for Veterans and Military Families Code Platoon has long focused on career training that leads directly to employment, with 80% of graduates landing jobs in software development, DevOps, or related roles. This new curriculum deepens that mission by targeting some of the most sought-after skills in tech today. Whether you're a tech professional looking to hire versatile engineers or a military Veteran or family member considering a future in cloud or AI, the AI Cloud and DevOps program offers a fast, effective path forward. About Code PlatoonCode Platoon is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that transforms Veterans, active duty Servicemembers, and military families into professional software engineers through an immersive, hands-on educational process and dedicated career services support. We recognize the unique and diverse skill sets and experiences that Veterans and the military community bring to the tech industry and provide the hard and soft skills necessary for these individuals to transition into careers in tech. Contact Information:Jim Hennessey(312) 767-7673396832@ View original content: SOURCE Code Platoon
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon commits A$20bn to expand Australian data centres by 2029
Amazon has unveiled a A$20bn ($13.02bn) investment plan for 2025 to 2029, aimed at expanding its data centre infrastructure in Australia. This initiative is intended to meet the rising demand for cloud computing and AI in the country. The investment will enhance AI capabilities and drive the modernisation of Australian organisations, aligning with the government's goal of boosting productivity and economic growth through AI innovation. It will benefit several Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers and partners by providing advanced cloud and AI tools while ensuring compliance with local data residency and regulatory requirements. The Australian Government's Department of Industry, Science and Resources projects that AI and automation could add up to A$600bn to Australia's GDP annually by 2030. Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: 'I am pleased to join Matt Garman to announce AWS's investment of A$20bn over five years to further develop and expand its data centers in Sydney and Melbourne.' The investment coincides with the launch of AWS AI Spring Australia, a series of programmes aimed at accelerating AI adoption nationwide. Key initiatives include the AWS Generative AI Accelerator for early-stage startups and the AWS AI Launchpad to support enterprises in adopting AI technologies. In 2023, AWS expanded its footprint by opening the AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region and introducing Australia's first AWS Local Zones in Perth. The launch of Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed generative AI service, in April 2024, and a partnership with the Australian Government to develop a "Top Secret" AWS Cloud for national security in July 2024. AWS has been present in Australia since 2012, starting with the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region. AWS CEO Matt Garman said: 'This planned investment deepens our long-term commitment to supporting the growth and development of Australian organisations of all sizes and helping them harness the enormous opportunity that generative AI offers.' To support its expanded infrastructure, Amazon is investing in three new solar farms in Victoria and Queensland, operated by European Energy, purchasing over 170MW of capacity. This complements its existing support for eight solar and wind projects across New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, which power its data and fulfilment centres. Recently, Amazon announced an investment of $10bn in North Carolina to expand its data centre infrastructure, supporting AI and cloud computing advancements. "Amazon commits A$20bn to expand Australian data centres by 2029" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
