Amazon—best known for its global online shopping platform—is now using its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division to roll out new AI-driven tools aimed at helping retailers, distributors, and suppliers manage rising operational costs.

These pressures stem from new Federal Labor regulations, growing ACTU demands, and potential future AI-related compliance requirements if Australian unions succeed in pushing through proposed changes.

The company says its latest generative-AI technologies are built to improve efficiency and offset increasing business expenses. A major focus is a new class of AI agents capable of executing complex tasks for hours or even days without getting stuck—an advancement AWS executives describe as a significant leap in automation.

Distributors upgrading to robotic warehouses stand to benefit the most. Businesses looking to speed up order fulfilment—such as CDG Group with its new Tullamarine facility in Melbourne—are expected to lean heavily on AI as regulatory and union pressures drive up operating costs, industry observers say.

A key part of Amazon’s offering is Nova Forge, a platform that lets companies train customised process models using their own proprietary data. These models run on AWS’s latest Trainium3 AI processors, now deployed inside its global data-centre network.

“We’ve spent the past year focused on how to build a really robust brain that can manage complicated work streams,” AWS CEO Matt Garman told The Wall Street Journal.

Traditional AI agents often require repeated human intervention, but Garman says AWS’s new “frontier agents” can pursue broader goals for much longer periods. He attributes this to a major investment in software engineering, infrastructure data, a mix of specialised models, and an advanced memory architecture.

At its annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, AWS also announced the general availability of Trainium3 and expanded access to the Nova model-training service for corporate customers.

AWS argues that AI—combined with its broader suite of cloud, analytics, and automation tools—can deliver measurable value for distributors by reducing operational friction, improving forecasting accuracy, and enhancing customer experience.

Key AWS Benefits for Distributors

1. Smarter Demand Forecasting

Amazon Forecast: Machine-learning-driven demand prediction tailored to business-specific variables.

Amazon SageMaker: Build custom models incorporating seasonality, promotions, location patterns, and regional trends.
These tools help distributors reduce stockouts, limit excess inventory, and minimise dead-stock risks. They also improve predictions around promotions, price changes, and supply disruptions—particularly during high-volume events such as Black Friday.

2. Automated Warehouse & Logistics Optimisation
With IoT-driven data from equipment sensors, forklifts, and warehouse systems, AI can:

Optimise pick-and-pack workflows

Enable predictive maintenance to reduce downtime

Automate repetitive tasks such as labelling, scanning, and sorting
This drives major efficiency gains in automated distribution centres.

Amazon already uses these AI systems internally for its own retail and fulfilment operations and is now opening its technology to external customers, a move analysts say could significantly lower long-term costs for distributors and strengthen profitability.

Garman added that beta users of AWS’s custom models have seen 40% to 60% performance improvements over methods like fine-tuning and retrieval-augmented generation. “We think a lot of enterprises and startups will adopt this as the core intelligence behind their business workflows,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that scaling infrastructure to meet skyrocketing demand remains a challenge. “We’ve added 3.8 gigawatts of new data-centre capacity in just the last 12 months. And we’re not slowing down—we’re accelerating.”