Amazon.
com has a plan that may give it an advantage in the battle for skilled workers as the artificial intelligence race intensifies.
Amazon
(ticker: AMZN) announced Monday it plans to provide free AI training to two million people by 2025, saying “the need for an AI-savvy workforce has never been greater.” The initiative, AI Ready, includes eight online courses ranging from foundational to advanced levels. There is also a new scholarship program for more than 50,000 high school and university students.
“If we are going to unlock the full potential of AI to tackle the world’s most challenging problems, we need to make AI education accessible to anyone with a desire to learn,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of data and AI at Amazon Web Services.
While the initiative could give Amazon an edge over its competitors,
Microsoft
(MSFT) and
Alphabet
(GOOGL), it also seems to be designed at improving AI education in business more broadly. Sivasubramanian said the primary goal was to “democratize” generative AI education, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company’s enterprise customers could also benefit.
A recent AWS study found that while hiring people with AI skills was a priority for 73% of businesses, three out of four said they can’t meet their talent needs.
Artificial intelligence has developed at a rapid pace over the past year or so, but the corporate workforce isn’t anywhere near prepared to fully harness it. Amazon’s program aims to help bridge that gap, but in doing so it will also help itself in the battle for talent.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@barrons.com
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