AWS creates AI Spring Australia program to double down on capabilities

To capture the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the establishment of flagship program, AI Spring Australia.

The program offers a range of initiatives to help customers and partners across different sectors and industries build AI capability, said AWS Australia and New Zealand vice president and managing director Rianne Van Veldhuizen.

During the 2025 AWS Summit in Sydney on 4 June, Veldhuizen said Australian organisations need to accelerate their digital transformation and leverage AI to boost productivity, drive operational efficiencies.

This includes unlocking “new product and service innovation if we want to realise the shared vision for Australia’s future”, she said.

“Through AI Spring Australia, AWS will leverage our world-class infrastructure, industry-leading and trusted AI tools and services, built-in security and guardrails, and deep AI expertise to help customers and partners begin and accelerate their generative AI journey,” she said.

“Our first AI Spring Australia programs support startup organisations (AWS Generative AI Accelerator) and enterprises (AWS AI Launchpad), with programs for other sectors coming soon.

“AWS AI Launchpad helps enterprises move their gen AI workloads more rapidly from concept to production, leveraging AWS expertise, partner support, and dedicated funding.”

The AI Spring initiative comes on the heels of a planned $13.2 billion investment in existing cloud infrastructure by 2027 in AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region and AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) Region.

Which, by AWS’ estimation, will likely contribute “$35 billion to total gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027 and support an estimated average of 11,000 full-time equivalent jobs at local vendors.  

“AI is one of the most transformational technologies of our generation, with opportunities to tackle some of humanity’s most challenging problems,” she said. “Australia already has a rich culture of ambitious thinking, experimentation, and hard work, and AWS is committed to creating opportunities for Australia to lead globally in AI innovation.”

An AWS study of 2,000 Australian individuals and businesses found that 81 per cent of local startups are already leveraging AI in their business.

Another 42 per cent were developing new AI-driven products and services, and 53 per cent using AI at the core of their business operations. 

For AWS, this means doubling down on start-up support, including the call for a new cohort for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator.

Applications for the 2025 cohort will open on 10 June.

“Two years ago, we launched the AWS Generative AI Accelerator program to help generative AI startups turbocharge their growth with both technical and business programming, including mentorship and the opportunity to receive up to US$1 million in AWS credits,” said Van Veldhuizen.

Since it was announced in 2023, five Australian startups have gone through the global program, including Leonardo AI, Contact Harald, Marqo, Relevance AI, and Splash Music. 

Startups are not just experimenting with AI, they are creating these technologies and building AI-driven businesses by deploying AI into new products and business models, Veldhuizen added.