How Amazon Is Losing The Artificial Intelligence Race

While many observers consider Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) to be an unstoppable force that steamrolls the competition wherever it goes, most notably in retail and cloud computing, the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are particularly important areas where it lags, Bloomberg reports. Getting up to speed is vital for Amazon, Bloomberg adds, because the running of AI applications is likely to fuel much of the future growth in cloud computing. Global market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) projects that sales of software for coding AI applications will increase by 40% through 2021, exceeding $8 billion, and that the growth will be even faster for these products in the cloud, Bloomberg says. Meanwhile, competitors Microsoft Inc. (MSFT) and Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), the parent of Google, have raced ahead in developing AI applications for their cloud computing clients, per Bloomberg.