Amazon unveiled a new chatbot named Q at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Reinvent conference in Las Vegas, marking the company’s latest effort to challenge Microsoft and Google’s dominance in the workplace tech arena.
Since its inception in 1994, Amazon has introduced numerous applications geared toward end users, spanning supply chain management, email, encrypted messaging, video calling, customer service, and marketing outreach. Despite these offerings, most have not achieved substantial success. The primary revenue for Amazon Web Services, established in 2006 and providing on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs, primarily stems from core computing services and storage.
Now, with the introduction of Q, Amazon seeks to rival Microsoft and Google in the AI chatbot domain. The product aims to be utilized within professional environments, aiming to sway the focus on AI chatbots within the international spotlight. Q was unveiled at the AWS Reinvent conference as Amazon’s newest endeavor to contest the industry giants’ market dominance.
This move follows a year after OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, introduced the ChatGPT chatbot, which significantly popularized generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in generating human-like text.
Regarding Q’s nomenclature, speculation abounds about its origin. AWS suggests that the name Q could stem from the character in James Bond films, the head of Q Branch responsible for overseeing secret field technologies, or the character Q from the Star Trek TV series.
The demo version of Q offers several functions for free. Once the preview period concludes, business users may access certain features for $20 per person per month, while a version catering to developers and IT professionals with added functionalities will cost $25 per person per month. In comparison, Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Duet AI for Google Workspace for professional users are both priced at $30 per person per month.
Adam Selipsky, AWS CEO, highlighted Q’s capabilities onstage at Reinvent, explaining how it assists in comprehending AWS capabilities and problem-solving. Q can engage through communication platforms like Salesforce Slack and word processing apps used by software developers.
The tool automates changes to source code, reducing developers’ workload, and is compatible with over 40 enterprise systems. Consequently, Q facilitates discussions involving data stored in Microsoft 365, Dropbox, Salesforce, Zendesk, and AWS’ S3 data storage service.
Steven Dickens, vice president and practice leader at Futurum Group, remarked, “AWS Q will revolutionize the experience for AWS customers navigating a multitude of service options. By avoiding the creation of an AI assistant for each service, AWS anticipates widespread adoption of Q by developers and cloud administrators in the upcoming months.”
