By 2025, Amazon aims to upskill two million people on basic to advanced AI skills with new classes named “AI Ready” as the competition over attracting and retaining skilled workers heats up against competitors such as Microsoft and Google.
According to a report by Deloitte Insights, “the demand for AI talent is outstripping the supply of qualified workers, creating a talent gap that is challenging for many organizations to close…[with] only 16% of executives say they have enough AI talent, and 69% say they face moderate to extreme AI skills gaps.”
AI could alter how millions of individuals perform work tasks, and the eight new Amazon courses address a need allowing workers both in tech and tech-adjacent roles to learn how to apply generative AI technology.
The classes are accessible online through an Amazon learning website, are offered for non-Amazon employees, and were created likely to increase the company’s own internal talent pool.
Swami Sivasubramanian, Amazon’s vice president of data and AI, says the business’s primary goal is to “democratize” generative AI education and that re-skilling workers would be advantageous for Amazon, but also all are welcome.
He said artificial intelligence “is going to be the most transformative technology we encounter in our generation, but it won’t reach its full potential unless we really have the workforce ready to embrace it and turbocharge it in a big way.”
According to Jane Oates, a former Labor Department official and now president of WorkingNation, a nonprofit focused on workforce development, many workers could benefit from upskilling, but it’s more challenging to navigate the timing of when workers should undertake training.
“It’s going to be complicated,” Oates said. “I definitely would not use the word easy.”
All sorts of companies, from real estate to tech giant Salesforce, have launched their own versions of AI training programs or initiatives to help workers address any lack of skills.
Spencer Kimball, chief executive of database startup Cockroach Labs, said for “most people right now, this is all new to them,” Kimball said.
“And given how quickly things can change, it’s not just new employees that come, it’s something that is a constant training process for all of your employees.”
The new Amazon program expands their past training options and teaches users concepts like how to use an AI tool that automatically produces lines of code but splits the eight courses into two categories: for business and nontechnical audiences and developer and technical audiences.
Generative AI will likely be around for a while, with many big tech companies scrambling to stay on top of the latest AI development.
Previously, Amazon has been seen as falling behind peers such as Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google.
At this stage, Amazon must heavily adopt AI to remain competitive.
Chief Executive Andy Jassy shared that he predicts generative AI to bring in tens of billions of dollars for AWS in the next decade or so and that AI will be found everywhere soon enough within the Amazon business, which motivated the company to invest up to $6 billion in Anthropic, which will employ Amazon’s custom chips to build and deploy its AI software.
