Amazon(AMZN.US)AWS launches medical AI tools to enter healthcare office scenarios and expand cloud business footprint

Amazon (AMZN.US) is accelerating the deployment of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry.

The company’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), recently launched an AI tool suite for healthcare organizations called Amazon Connect Health. It is designed to help doctors and healthcare providers ease the burden of heavy administrative work by automating routine tasks.

According to the announcement, Amazon Connect Health can automatically generate medical records during real-time conversations between doctors and patients, and automatically add billing code, symptom, and treatment procedure coding. In addition, the tool can extract key information from existing electronic medical records and generate summaries, thereby reducing the time doctors spend on paperwork. The system also provides patient identity verification capabilities, and supports services such as appointment scheduling and management.

AWS Chief Medical Officer Rowland Illing said the healthcare industry is currently plagued by complex administrative processes. “We’re very aware that the healthcare system is being drowned by administrative complexity,” he said. He added that AI can play a key role in reducing medical documentation work, allowing doctors to devote more attention to patient care.

In recent years, technology giants have been rolling out AI technologies into healthcare management, hoping to improve the efficiency of healthcare systems. Companies such as Microsoft (MSFT.US), Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google (GOOGL.US, GOOG.US), and Oracle (ORCL.US) have all been increasing investment in healthcare AI tools, and many startups are also actively positioning themselves, trying to simplify the cumbersome processes in healthcare systems through automation.

As the world’s largest cloud computing services provider, AWS holds a leading position in renting computing capacity, data storage, and related services. However, Amazon’s progress in developing application software for office employees has not been smooth. Even though AWS has rolled out several AI office software products in recent years, the company has gradually shut down some office products, such as video conferencing and file sharing.

By contrast, Amazon has seen more evident success with its software product in the customer service space—Amazon Connect. This call center software is widely used in enterprise customer service systems. Amazon previously said in October last year that the product is expected to reach an annual revenue scale of $1 billion. Some of the features included in Amazon Connect Health are also integrated with the call center platform.

Amazon Connect Health officially went live this Thursday. According to the pricing plan published by Amazon, the cost for the automatic medical record generation feature is $99 per month, while the patient identity verification service is billed per conversation at roughly 15 cents each time. As for other features that are still in preview, Amazon has not yet disclosed specific pricing.

Industry insiders believe that as digital transformation accelerates in the healthcare industry, the application space for AI in healthcare administrative management is rapidly expanding. Amazon’s move not only helps expand AWS’s influence in healthcare, but also reflects that technology companies are trying to reshape how healthcare services operate through AI technology.