ZURICH, SWITZERLAND — Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, today announced that Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that makes it easy for customers to find and access high-performing models for their specific use case and delivers powerful capabilities to build and scale generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications, is now generally available in the AWS Europe (Zurich) Region.
The general availability of Amazon Bedrock in the AWS Europe (Zurich) Region will support customers across the country, including public sector organizations and companies in regulated industries, to innovate with generative AI and have more options of where they can run, store, and host generative AI applications also locally in Switzerland.
“Generative AI is the transformative technology of our time. There are unique opportunities across industries to innovate at unprecedented speed. We are committed to helping customers in Switzerland and worldwide to accelerate their generative AI journey from experimentation to production in an efficient and secure way. They can build applications from scratch as well as utilize custom models for specific use cases. With the launch of Amazon Bedrock in our AWS Europe (Zurich) Region, we offer our customers local data storage and processing options for their generative AI use cases and democratize access to leading AI models — with the highest possible focus on security and privacy,” said Chris Keller, managing director of AWS Europe Central.
Organizations across Switzerland are using generative AI for a wide variety of use cases, including driving productivity gains, creating innovative user experiences, and reimagining work. Amazon Bedrock is a fully managed service, which offers customers a selection of high-performing models, built with enterprise-grade security and privacy. Additionally, AWS provides customers with the tools, resources, and training they need to responsibly and securely advance generative AI innovation. Starting today, customers can now access the latest generation of models including Amazon Titan (Text Embeddings v2) and Anthropic (Claude 3 Haiku, Claude 3.5 Sonnet).
AWS Customers and Partners innovating using generative AI
Swiss Post uses Amazon Bedrock to build generative AI-based applications to increase productivity and efficiency. For example, they built LLM4Post — based on Amazon Bedrock — as a playground to allow the company´s internal data scientists to quickly validate use cases with stakeholders. "We like Amazon Bedrock because it is easy to use and integrate into our existing AWS infrastructure landscape as well as the fast pace of new features being implemented,” said Philippe Goetschmann, Lead ML Engineer at Swiss Post.
“The launch of Swisscom's ChatBot Builder platform, powered by Amazon Bedrock, has been an important enabler for our organization. It allows internal developer teams to rapidly infuse their applications with generative AI capabilities to enhance the experience of employees and customers. The availability of Amazon Bedrock in Switzerland enables its use for additional sensitive cases and other critical business functions that mandate local data processing. The offered flexibility of the large language models has allowed us to build chatbots that can handle a wide range of queries with impressive natural language understanding. Overall, our ChatBot Builder has empowered our teams to digitize and automate first use cases, freeing up our experts to focus on more strategic initiatives. We're pleased with the results we've seen so far and look forward to expanding our use of this platform,” said Mario Paonessa, lead architect for Data, Analytics, & AI, at telecommunications provider Swisscom.
Alexey Popov, CEO of Spitch, a provider of conversational AI solutions, stated: “Spitch team welcomes the launch of Amazon Bedrock in the AWS Zurich region as it will undoubtedly make it easier for Swiss enterprises to improve operational efficiency and customer services. Combining GenAI by Amazon Bedrock with Spitch's business-oriented conversational AI platform capabilities creates strategic opportunities globally for easy-to-deploy, next-generation conversational AI solutions that are also domain-specific and compliant with data protection regulations.”
“Amazon Bedrock is helping copebit's customers get more value from their data in the cloud. Bedrock combines advanced AI models with strong security and privacy protections. This allows businesses to search text, generate content, translate information, and tackle complex challenges more effectively. copebit is using Amazon Bedrock to drive business growth for its customers while ensuring compliance with data regulations. We welcome the availability of Amazon Bedrock in Switzerland, which allows us to address customers who prefer to store and process their data locally”, said Marco Kuendig, CTO of copebit, a Swiss IT company.
Richard Polya, head of Insurance Partnerships at Zuehlke Engineering AG, a technology consulting firm, stated: “Amazon Bedrock is transforming our service delivery in insurance and finance. We've created AI-powered underwriting and claims assistants, significantly enhancing operational efficiency for insurers. Bedrock's ease of use, multimodal flexibility, and pay-as-you-scale approach lower innovation barriers. Its availability in Switzerland is crucial for local data processing, addressing privacy concerns in banking and insurance. We've witnessed Amazon Bedrock improve customer satisfaction by summarizing complex documents and optimizing customer journeys, allowing staff to focus on high-value tasks. Bedrock's combination of advanced AI and robust security makes it ideal for businesses seeking AI solutions while maintaining regulatory compliance.”
“As a global leader in private market investments, Partners Group recognizes the strategic importance of digital transformation. By implementing cloud-native solutions from AWS, the firm is advancing its technical capabilities to further strengthen competitive differentiation. Additionally, access to advanced AI services such as Amazon Bedrock in more regions opens up further opportunities for innovation in the financial services industry”, said Raymond Schnidrig, chief technology officer at Partners Group, a private market investment company.
Jan Kortus, CEO of Trustsoft, a cloud operations partner, stated: “Amazon Bedrock stands out for its top-notch security, flexibility, and seamless integration. It adapts to diverse business needs and easily integrates with Trustsoft systems, enhancing data protection and regulatory compliance. Trustsoft embraces Bedrock in Switzerland for its high-quality data solutions, security standards, and compliance with Swiss data protection laws. At Trustsoft, we help financial services clients (banks and insurance companies) leverage AWS solutions, including GenAI and Bedrock, to create new revenue streams through unparalleled automation.”
“The introduction of Amazon Bedrock in Switzerland offers our customers in the regulated market new possibilities. With high regulatory requirements, it is essential to have secure and efficient solutions. Our experienced consultants serve as trusted advisors, providing expertise in AI and Amazon Bedrock. They help customers realistically assess the feasibility of their ideas within time and budget constraints. Amazon Bedrock enables the secure use of generative AI across various applications. By providing access to different foundation models through a standardized API, we deliver customized, cost-effective solutions tailored to each customer's needs in this highly regulated environment,” said Cyrill Rüttimann, partner at IPT, an IT-consulting-company.
Emanuel Flück, head Cloud Center of Excellence at PostFinance, stated: “PostFinance is a Swiss bank offering innovative banking services to our customers. To do this, we are implementing various banking and business use cases on AWS’ cloud native solutions. In addition to technical advancements, the cloud transformation is enabling us to strengthen our competitive advantage in Switzerland. The availability of advanced AI services in the AWS region in Switzerland also opens up further new opportunities for innovation in the financial sector.”
Supporting upskilling and entrepreneurship in generative AI
Across Switzerland, AWS is making investments in partner support programs, startup accelerators, and Large Language Model (LLM) development programs designed to make it even easier for local organizations to build specialized generative AI applications. This includes initiatives such as the recently launched AWS GenAI Lofts designed to help startup customers across the region and around the world to accelerate the creation of generative AI applications and the AWS Activate program, which provides startups globally with the resources they need to build, launch, and scale on AWS.
Based on the recent AWS-commissioned study, “Unlocking Europe’s AI Potential in the Digital Decade”, 54% of Swiss companies say they plan to hire additional staff with AI skills to drive the implementation and development of AI . AWS has trained 3.2 million people on cloud skills across the EMEA region since 2017. However, with the rapid adoption of cloud-enabled technologies like AI, more needs to be done to upskill the workforce at scale so organizations can innovate and grow in an AI-driven future. In November 2023, Amazon launched the AI Ready initiative that complements AWS’s commitment to provide free cloud computing skills training to 29 million individuals globally by 2025. AWS has surpassed this ambitious goal and already helped more than 31 million learners across 200 countries, including Switzerland. Through AI Ready, an Amazon educational initiative, AWS offers a suite of free AI and generative AI training courses, aligned to both technical and non-technical roles, so that anyone can build AI skills.
AWS has a long-term commitment to customers and local communities in Switzerland. AWS launched the AWS Europe (Zurich) Region in 2022 and announced plans to invest in local infrastructure, supporting an average of over 2,500 full-time jobs annually at external vendors. These investments will accelerate innovation and drive economic growth and are estimated to contribute $16.3 billion to Switzerland´s gross domestic product over the next 15 years. AWS infrastructure creates positive ripple effects across the economy, including in digital skills training and certification.
At AWS, earning and maintaining customer trust is the foundation of our business. We earn this trust in the privacy space by working to meet our customers’ needs and by being transparent in our privacy commitments. To get started with Amazon Bedrock in the AWS Europe (Zurich) Region, the dedicated blog post "Adding Generative AI capabilities to your data in Switzerland with Amazon Bedrock" provides comprehensive guidance. Additionally, the blog post "Data Protection and Responsible Use of Amazon Bedrock in Switzerland" explains the data protection commitment of AWS.