Artificial Intelligence in Practice

3Amazon: Using Deep Learning To Drive Business Performance

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon as an online book store, but in reality he could have sold anything. His main focus was establishing a technology company that could dominate during the predicted boom in online retail, which he saw coming. Today, Amazon is a multinational e-commerce giant and the world's leading cloud computing provider, making it the third most valuable public company in the United States. Beyond its core retail and cloud business, the company also has a publishing business, a film and television studio operation, and produces consumer products such as the Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and TV sticks, as well as the Amazon Echo.

Amazon has used predictive analytics since those earliest days in the 1990s. It has experience deploying these systems across its entire business – from its famous recommendation engines to optimizing the routes of robots working in its order fulfilment centers.

However, the growing power of machine learning has caused the online retail giant to reassess every aspect of its operations since the start of the current decade. Not content with merely competing with Walmart and Target for the retail market, it has always positioned itself as a rival to Google, Facebook and Apple, seeking leadership in the tech sphere.

This meant implementing deep learning technology into its core services, as well as expanding into new areas such as home automation with its Alexa-powered Echo devices ...