In this exclusive interview, while on location at the ServiceNow Knowledge24 conference, Acceleration Economy’s Tony Uphoff hosts Scott Rosecrans, vice president, AWS, GenAI Pursuits, for a conversation on ServiceNow’s partnership with AWS, GenAI perspectives, and stimulating the partners ecosystem.
Highlights
Supporting Customers (01:05)
ServiceNow is moving its platform over to AWS, as its customers have been looking for more availability, scalability, resiliency, security, and ability to innovate faster. The least interesting part, Rosecrans cites, is moving to AWS. The more interesting part, however, is what you can do once you get there. With customers having a lot of data in AWS and ServiceNow, the partnership is creating the data foundation to be able to run a proper GenAI process.
Embracing GenAI (02:22)
“Not a day goes by where it doesn’t come up,” Rosecrans says about GenAI. Amazon has taken a three-tier approach to GenAI:
- At the bottom level, AWS started with silicon. This helps with capacity and brings better press performance.
- The middle tier is SageMaker, which allows customers to build and train their own models on AWS technology.
- The newest part is the application layer, which brings the generative element. Bedrock, an API-based platform that allows customers to use any large language model (LLM) they want, and Q, a GenAI assistant, are two offerings from AWS that embrace GenAI.
ServiceNow Partnership (04:35)
AWS is still in the early stages of its partnership with ServiceNow. Currently, customers are starting to move to ServiceNow and AWS. The next step is determining how to expand and do tighter integrations. Combining ServiceNow’s workflows with the data that’s in AWS, there’s a lot of potential for customers to benefit.
Many organizations are struggling with moving from experimenting to production value when it comes to GenAI. “They’re getting a little bit more value-focused than they were six months ago,” Rosecrans highlights. Keeping the human element in the loop of first rollouts is something they keep in mind when developing for customers.
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Partners Ecosystem and GenAI (05:19)
Rosecrans identifies three reasons why GenAI is stimulating the partners ecosystem:
- It’s so new, it changes every day, and everyone is trying to figure it out. Trying different models and having flexibility is very important.
- If you want to build your own models, access to processing power is almost impossible now. The partners ecosystem is vital to accessing that.
- Time to market: Not everyone can build their own applications that provide what GenAI offers. ServiceNow and AWS combined can bring things to market a lot faster.
A Commitment to Responsible AI (07:50)
Responsible AI has been top of mind. AI must have explainability, transparency, and security. “We build all those things into our products to help customers manage it to their specifications,” he says. AWS has a commitment that, by the end of 2025, it will train 2 million people — and offer 2 million people free training on AWS and its philosophy around AI and ethical, responsible usage.
A Message to the C-Suite (11:10)
Rosecrans provides three core insights for the C-suite that wants to get started:
- Move fast: “Don’t go through analysis paralysis because everything’s changing so fast that you’ve got to start experimenting,” he says.
- Identify the top three to five use cases that they want to test. Is there value? Is there return on investment (ROI)? Am I changing my customer experience?
- Don’t just pick one; having flexibility in your ecosystem is important.
Looking Ahead (12:14)
Approaching the point of seeing impact is what Rosecrans is looking forward to in the coming years. “There’s actually a result and productivity that’s coming to real life right now, which we weren’t seeing six to eight months ago.” He also emphasizes how tasks are becoming easier with more models and options coming out, enabling people to create with less effort than they used to put into creating.
The AI Ecosystem Q1 2024 Report compiles the innovations, funding, and products highlighted in AI Ecosystem Reports from the first quarter of 2024. Download now for perspectives on the companies, investments, innovations, and solutions shaping the future of AI.
