The News: Kyndryl and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are establishing an Innovation Factory to create industry-specific generative AI and machine learning (ML) solutions as part of a multiyear agreement between the global IT service provider and hyperscaler. You can read the release on Kyndryl’s website.

AWS and Kyndryl Partner to Build an AI Innovation Factory

Analyst Take: At the massively attended AWS re:Invent conference, Kyndryl and AWS unveiled their strategic collaboration agreement (SCA), a significant partnership aiming to pioneer in the fields of generative AI and advanced ML technologies. This alliance is set to concentrate on the development and delivery of cutting-edge generative AI and ML capabilities, marking a noteworthy step in technological advancement.

The centerpiece of this collaboration is the Kyndryl and AWS Innovation Factory, a joint venture that represents a mutual investment initiative by both companies. This initiative is dedicated to co-creating and enhancing AI and ML solutions, leveraging Kyndryl’s expertise in data-driven technologies. The aim is to not only develop these advanced technologies but also significantly boost customer adoption. This boost will be achieved by integrating Kyndryl’s robust data-driven capabilities with the latest AI and ML innovations, ensuring that clients receive the most advanced and effective solutions tailored to their needs.

Kyndryl and AWS Committed to AI and ML Innovation

This partnership underscores both companies’ commitment to leading the charge in AI and ML innovation, driving significant advancements in the technology industry. Kyndryl and AWS said they intend to:

Enhance Kyndryl’s capabilities to design, implement, migrate, modernize, and manage AWS cloud services across IT environments.
Speed modernization of enterprise resource planning systems and other applications on AWS through a plan designed to reduce costs, complexities, and time.
Deepen the expertise among Kyndryl’s technical specialists to rapidly expand the number of AWS-based certifications and specialist certifications on the 10,000+ AWS certifications already obtained to add thousands more certifications.

The overall goal is to help IT customers accelerate their adoption of generative AI. Kyndryl said it will use its AI-readiness program to support customers in the adoption of responsible AWS generative AI services. This program relies on Kyndryl’s deep domain knowledge and enterprise-grade AI expertise to provide customers with end-to-end services to incorporate generative AI solutions that will increase business impact.

Kyndryl’s AI strategy includes four pillars:

Establishing data governance and responsible AI policies for following data privacy standards.
Creating AI solutions with good data foundations by building a robust enterprise data fabric.
Identifying high-value use cases through discovery workshops for building quick prototypes and delivering production with large language model (LLM) operations architectures.
Integrating and using AI technologies by focusing on operational processes, people skills, and human-centric design.

Looking Ahead

At re:Invent, Kyndryl and AWS unveiled multiple initiatives, with a special emphasis on a mainframe modernization collaboration. However, the spotlight was largely on AI/ML, which emerged as a dominant theme throughout the event. Looking ahead, it is anticipated that both companies will not only deepen their investment in this critical area of development but also expand their collaborative efforts with other partners to further enhance their AI/ML capabilities.

In the competitive landscape of public cloud providers, AWS’s rivals, Google and Microsoft, have also placed a significant focus on AI/ML at their respective 2023 events. Kyndryl has played a notable role in this arena, developing accelerators to augment the capabilities of services such as Microsoft Azure OpenAI. Additionally, Kyndryl has adopted Microsoft 365 Copilot, aiming to boost the production efficiency of its own workforce. On the AWS front, the company made several impactful moves at re:Invent. It introduced new customer-specific silicon, expanded its AI Skills Training program, and strengthened its partnership with leading GPU vendor NVIDIA, among other AI-centered initiatives. AWS also hinted at the introduction of more such innovative projects in the near future, underscoring its commitment to advancing AI/ML technology.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.