Many of the market’s most prominent tech stocks are struggling right now but that doesn’t mean some companies aren’t making notable progress.
Amazon (AMZN) just celebrated a key milestone, surpassing Walmart (WMT) as the world’s biggest retailer by net sales, posting $188 billion to the longstanding chain’s $181 billion. Walmart may have the top spot for the year but if Amazon continues growing, it could easily lose that spot as well.
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However, Amazon is focused on other areas that may help fuel its growth into 2025 and beyond. The company revealed in its recent Q4 earnings report that it plans to significantly increase capital expenditures, indicating that it plans to scale its artificial intelligence (AI) ventures.
That should be reassuring for investors. But Amazon just revealed something that shows its AI plans are even bigger than some likely expected.
Amazon’s new AI push suggests that mundane tasks such as shopping online may be even easier in the near future.
Amazon believes it has found AI’s next big opportunity
One factor keeping Amazon in focus right now is the new Alexa+, specifically its new agentic AI features. The iconic device remains a favorite among consumers but now Amazon is advancing its capabilities even further in an attempt to conquer the market for consumer-facing AI agents.
Agentic AI refers to programs that are able to make decisions, carry out actions, and ultimately learn from the interactions they have. This advanced technology is paving the way to a future in which AI agents perform many mundane human tasks.
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“The company hopes to marry a more natural, expressive Alexa — one powered by generative AI models — with the ability to tap into first- and third-party apps, services, and platforms in a fully autonomous, intelligent way,” reports TechCrunch.
But Amazon has made it clear that it isn’t stopping here. On the contrary, it is reportedly taking steps to form a new group within its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division to focus exclusively on developing agentic AI technology, which AWS CEO Matt Garman has described as its next billion-dollar opportunity.
Reports indicate that Swami Sivasubramanian, a tech sector veteran who has helped build and scale AWS, will lead the new agentic AI group. Most recently, he served as Amazon Web Services’ vice president of AI and data.
Experts seem to share Garman’s view that the agentic AI market could provide lucrative opportunities for Amazon. Kai Warwzinek, co-founder of Impossible Cloud Network, sees it as a highly positive development.
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“Amazon is on the right track with its focus on developing AI agents within its cloud unit,” he states. “This is the next real-world application of AI in everyday lives and those that don’t get ahead of this trend will certainly be left behind. Indeed, AI agents will likely entirely change the way we interact with the web and will force a rethink of all the applications that are currently designed for a human user experience.”
This could be bad news for Amazon’s top AI competitors
While details are still emerging as to Amazon’s new agentic AI expansion, it is clear that AI agents will play a key role in the industry’s next high growth phase. And given the focus on it that Amazon and its peers are displaying, that phase could be arriving in the near future.
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The success of Amazon’s Alexa first helped show consumers how much AI could change their lives and make certain tasks easier. Now, the rise of agentic AI is poised to accelerate this trend even further, creating new valuable opportunities for the innovators who are first to market.
It also seems likely that Amazon could double down on enterprise agents in an effort to automate work-related tasks. This would allow them to compete with other leading tech producers such as Microsoft (MSFT) and Salesforce (CRM) , which also appear to be focused on agentic AI opportunities.
“These advanced autonomous decision-makers will also inject much greater productivity into our daily lives, especially in industries like manufacturing or customer support,” Warwzinek predicts. “Like it or not, this is the future, and the companies that lead these innovations will be the winners.”
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