Amazon is taking on Microsoft with a new tool to use AI to make it easier to find the right files, but experts say it'll be held back by complexity

Reuters

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy.

• Amazon Web Services released Amazon Kendra, a machine learning-based service that allows companies to build a search engine for internal documents.
• Kendra is designed to "get rid of information silos" and add content from a mix of sources such as intranet sites, Microsoft SharePoint, and file-sharing services like Dropbox into one central, searchable location.
• Analysts say Kendra is Amazon's answer to Project Cortex, a new service within Microsoft 365 that automatically surfaces information in real-time within any Microsoft application.
• There's one key difference between the two services: Cortex is automatically offered to Microsoft business applications users, while Kendra takes work to set up.
• For that reason, "it will be difficult for Kendra to present the same potential for the enterprise as Cortex," one analyst said.
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Amazon Web Services has a new machine learning-based search service called Amazon Kendra that allows companies to build a search engine for internal documents.

Kendra is designed to "get rid of information silos," according to Amazon, and add content from a mix of sources such as intranet sites, Microsoft SharePoint, and file-sharing services like Dropbox into one central, searchable location.

Analysts say Kendra is Amazon's answer to Project Cortex, a new tool Microsoft just released as part of Microsoft 365, its subscription bundle of business applications. Project Cortex is like a search engine, except it automatically surfaces information in real-time within any Microsoft application.

There's one key difference: Cortex will automatically become a part of the Microsoft 365 suite for all users, connecting to the data they already have within Microsoft's larger ecosystem. Amazon's Kendra, however, requires customers to put some elbow grease into setting it up, which may hamper adoption.

Knowledge management

Kendra and Cortex each provide a means to search for information across applications, helping cut down on time wasted trying to find the right file from the right app.

They're so-called knowledge management systems, basically a means for managing knowledge or information within an organization. There's a big opportunity in the space because, despite attempts from companies including Google, no one has quite figured it out yet, Futurum Research principal analyst Daniel Newman said.

Helping users share information across different applications solves a big problem in workforce productivity as employees increasingly need more applications to get their work done. It wastes time when users have to switch between several apps to access information, especially when it's hard to find.

For Microsoft, Project Cortex can be viewed as a competitive hedge against Microsoft Office rivals including Slack and Google's G Suite: The more documents a user has flowing through their Microsoft apps, the more useful the Cortex search system gets.

Kendra, meanwhile, is a way for Amazon to show that it's getting in the game - important, as it tries to show customers that it's keeping pace with the rise of artificial intelligence, which plays a major role in sifting the massive amounts of data involved in knowledge management.

AWS is "flexing its AI muscle" with Kendra, Raul Castanon-Martinez, a senior analyst at 451 Research who specializes in workforce collaboration, told Business Insider. "It positions AWS as a player in the next-generation knowledge management space against vendors like Google and Microsoft."

Hurdles for Amazon

Microsoft's version, though, has a big advantage because it already comes inside Microsoft 365, meaning it'll be right there alongside the apps they're already using without any additional steps required from users.

"Out of the box, Cortex is live, inside an environment people use every day," Newman said. "It's all about adoption."

Kendra, meanwhile, will have to be manually integrated across different, external applications, including Microsoft Office, Dropbox, and any other apps that its customers use for work. Unlike Microsoft or Google, Amazon doesn't have its own suite of productivity applications with which to connect.

"It will be difficult for Kendra to present the same potential for the enterprise as Cortex," Newman said.

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