Amazon helping Canadian customers utilize machine learning

Amazon is one of the most innovative companies in the tech sector right now, testing out ideas like artificial intelligence (AI)-powered self-serve grocery stores, autonomous delivery drones, and voice assistants in healthcare. At its AI Innovation event on May 15 at the ecobee headquarters in Toronto, Amazon Web Services (AWS) spoke about how it is incorporating machine learning into its products and services, and why moving in this direction is so important. "As we see the proliferation of data and more devices being connected to the internet, that creates an incredible opportunity for machine learning to be applied to solve business problems, to make different decisions, to go after really challenging circumstances, to address the needs of businesses, as well as consumers and citizens," Eric Gales, director of AWS Canada, told CDN. "It's an interesting area that Amazon has been investing in for two decades and it's a big part of our business in terms of how it gets applied. Whether that's using AI robots in warehouses or machine learning to develop better suggestions when you shop online, we've been focused on taking those capabilities and creating a portfolio of services to make it much more accessible to much wider range of applications." And while the Seattle-based tech giant is going all in on machine learning and AI, it recognizes that many of its partners need a boost.