The curtain fell on AWS re:Invent 2023 with a closing keynote from Dr. Werner Vogels, Amazon.com's Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Vogels shared his tech insights and predictions for 2024, setting the stage for a year of potential breakthrough shifts in the tech landscape.

AWS made several global announcements during the event, with a focus on the future of technology and its impact on various sectors. Rada Stanic, Chief Technologist for Australia and New Zealand, underscored the need for industry-led training opportunities to meet business demands. She emphasised the importance of upskilling the workforce in AI, a topic that is gaining traction as businesses continue to experiment and adopt generative AI.

“As businesses continue to experiment and adopt generative AI in 2024, there is a mounting discussion on the need to upskill our workforce in AI, helping them improve productivity and allow them to focus their time on more strategic and creative tasks. AWS research revealed the potential for workers with AI skills to earn up to 47% more in salaries. That’s why Amazon announced 'AI Ready', a new commitment to provide free AI skills training to two million people globally by 2025,” Stanic said.

Dr. Vogels' 2024 predictions include generative AI becoming culturally aware, FemTech taking off, AI assistants redefining developer productivity, and education evolving to match the speed of tech innovation. These predictions highlight the potential for technology to reshape various sectors, from healthcare to education and beyond.

"AI assistants will evolve from basic code generators into teachers and tireless collaborators that provide support throughout the software development lifecycle," Dr. Vogels said. "They will explain complex systems in simple language, suggest targeted improvements, and take on repetitive tasks, allowing developers to focus on the parts of their work that have the most impact."