Amazon’s new generative A.I. tool, “Q,” is designed to make it a little easier for cloud practitioners to wrangle the ever-expanding tasks and tools of Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Q isn’t limited to AWS; Amazon intends the platform to help businesses, service centers (via Amazon Connect) and supply-chain experts get the answers and advice they need via A.I.-powered conversations. But for those tech pros trying to figure their way through the immensities of AWS, Q’s advice on everything from best practices to implementing solutions to common issues could prove potentially invaluable.
AWS users can interact with Q like any other chatbot; you type a question, and the system does its best to answer. Amazon claims it will integrate Q into AWS Management Console, AWS Console Mobile Application, AWS Documentation, AWS websites, and Slack and Teams via AWS Chatbot.
For those just starting their AWS journey, the benefits here are pretty obvious: you can use Q to troubleshoot big issues or ask it to help you choose from a bewildering array of options. There’s also a feature that allows you to build “new features within your IDE and Amazon CodeCatalyst,” stated Amazon’s blog posting on the matter. “You can go from a natural language prompt to application features in minutes, with interactive step-by-step instructions and best practices, right from your IDE. With a prompt, Amazon Q will attempt to understand your application structure and break down your prompt into logical, atomic implementation steps.”
Amazon has rivals for some of this functionality, of course: OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s Llama 2 will write and test code for you. But Q’s emergence suggests we could see more generative A.I. platforms designed to walk tech pros through specific platforms and products, which could accelerate their learning curve.
Learning A.I. via AWS
For those interested in A.I.—and who believe they’ll end up working for companies that utilize Amazon’s cloud-based products—a new handful of AWS training courses can teach you the fundamentals of the technology. These courses include (but aren’t limited to) prompt engineering, low-code machine learning, building language models, and much more.
Amazon also plans on spending $12 million on a “AWS Generative A.I. Scholarship,” which could provide as many as 50,000 high school and university students with A.I.-related education.
Beyond Amazon and AWS, it’s clear that employers are interested in tech pros who have mastered a cluster of generative A.I. skills, including A.I. programming, data analysis, and data infrastructure engineering. While many of these skills are complicated to learn, the effort could prove worth it: many companies will pay generous six-figure salaries for top A.I. talent—and perhaps even more, when you consider stock options and other elements of a well-rounded compensation package.
