Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched “AI Spring Australia,” an initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence and generative AI technologies across various sectors.
Amazon’s cloud company, Amazon Web Services [AWS] has seen attendees at its annual summit quadruple in the last four years to 20,000 attendees as the importance of artificial intelligence has been hammered home to small business.
AWS announced its “AI Spring Australia,” an initiative aimed at further accelerating the adoption of AI technologies across various sectors at the AWS Summit in Sydney, yesterday.
The initiative introduces two primary programs: the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, designed for startups, and the AWS AI Launchpad, for enterprises. The programs offer resources such as access to AWS’s AI tools, mentorship, and funding opportunities.
AWS has invested huge amounts in Australia in recent years, including a planned $13.2 billion investment in cloud infrastructure across the Sydney and Melbourne regions by 2027. They claim this will ontribute $35 billion to Australia’s GDP and support approximately 11,000 full-time equivalent jobs at local vendors, according to Austrade.
Globally, AWS continues to expand its AI initiatives. It has announced similar investments in New Zealand and recently launched an AI Spring program in Singapore, aiming to train 5,000 individuals annually in AI skills from 2024 to 2026.
AWS has made a US$230 million commitment to support generative AI startups worldwide.
AWS says Australia is well positioned to capitalise on the AI boom, particularly among early-stage ventures. Citing a new survey of 2,000 Australian individuals and businesses, the company says 81% of local startups are already using AI, with more than half embedding the technology at the core of their operations.
“Australia’s high AI adoption among startups is remarkable compared to other countries,” said Rianne van Veldhuizen, AWS’s vice president and managing director for Australia and New Zealand. “In Europe, average AI adoption among startups is 68%, with 37% developing new AI-driven products and services.”
Van Veldhuizen pointed to Sydney-based Relevance AI as an example of what’s possible. The startup is “developing teams of AI agents to execute tasks autonomously across sales, research, marketing, operations, and customer support.”
Relevance AI banked $24 million in a Series B fundraising round announced on May 7, having previously raised $13 million since founding in 2020.
To support this next wave of AI-driven innovation, Amazon Web Services has announced applications will open on June 10 for the 2025 cohort of its AWS Generative AI Accelerator, a program that offers technical support, mentorship and up to US$1 million in AWS credits for selected startups.
“We’ve had five Australian startups go through the global program, including Leonardo AI in 2023, and Contact Harald, Marqo, Relevance AI, and Splash Music in 2024,” van Veldhuizen said.
“Startups are not just experimenting with AI, they are creating these technologies and building AI-driven businesses by deploying AI into new products and business models that would have been impossible a few years ago.”
