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AWS, Box expand partnership for Q generative AI, app dev
Box users get deeper AWS integrations that enable Q Business generative AI agents, as well as the capability to build apps in Bedrock, AWS' multi-LLM AI platform.
Box Inc. users got the keys to AWS's Bedrock generative AI platform to build apps, as well as its own flavor of Amazon Q Business, a ready-built AI agent that can be customized to enterprise content workflows.
Box AI's new integration with Anthropic's Claude and Amazon Titan models via Amazon Bedrock provide users with secure access to resources to build generative AI applications using data within Box's Intelligent Content Management platform.
The partnership represents another step in Box's ongoing transformation from a file repository to a trusted platform for unstructured data, AI and automation, said Alan Pelz-Sharpe, founder of analyst firm Deep Analysis. AI companies need unstructured data to work with and provide value, not the structured data in data clouds such as DataBricks or Snowflake.
Enterprise content management (ECM) vendors -- not just Box, but also companies such as OpenText, Microsoft and Dropbox -- are sitting on "goldmines" of unstructured data, he said, which puts them in the driver's seat of this year's rush to add AI into the enterprise tech stack. That doesn't mean unstructured data is high quality, relevant, well-maintained or accurate. It is early days in which IT teams are mixing generative AI and ECM, and much progress is still to be made.
"That's a big opportunity," Pelz-Sharpe said. "But it's also a huge challenge to overcome."
Build or buy part of partnership
Offering Box users access to Bedrock and Amazon Q Business satisfies both AI "build" and "buy" organizations, said Vasi Philomin, AWS vice president of generative AI.
Bedrock apps are more developer-intensive and offer many user controls and access to a number of LLMs. Q comes as a prebuilt agent that can be customized with no code to interrogate enterprise content repositories and return search and summaries. Both deliver search results and summaries through retrieval-augmented generation.
Some AWS customers, such as NASDAQ -- which uses Bedrock-built apps to detect fraud in enterprise content, including insider trading -- have built large projects. For most Box users, however, the key to successful rollouts will be starting small with a project that has business value and building on that success, said Box CTO Ben Kus.
Kus also said some Box customers took one look at early generative AI LLMs and decided to skip building a GenAI strategy for their companies, because those early models might not have looked very good. Taking a second look now might change their minds.
"My advice when asked is, 'You might want to try again, because the models now are just dramatically different from six months ago, even three months ago, to the point of this release," Kus said.
Box AI with Anthropic's Claude and Amazon Titan models via Amazon Bedrock is available today to Box Enterprise Plus customers through Box AI APIs. Box users can access Q Business via a custom connector.
Don Fluckinger is a senior news writer for TechTarget Editorial. He covers customer experience, digital experience management and end-user computing. Got a tip? Email him.
