What Are AI Cloud Services?

Artificial intelligence (AI) cloud services are a type of cloud computing resource that allows you to access AI models and AI-powered software without investing the time and cost to develop, train, and deploy your own AI applications from scratch. You can access AI-powered software, infrastructure, or app development platforms through the cloud to scale your IT services as you need them.

Gartner projects that generative AI and AI services will be one of the leading causes of cloud adoption through 2025. By 2027, 90 percent of companies are projected to use hybrid cloud environments to support business processes [1]. Some of the biggest AI cloud services companies are Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, IBM, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Learn more about the capabilities of each of these AI cloud services companies and what you can do with AI services you access through the cloud. 

What are AI cloud services?

An AI cloud service is a method for accessing artificial intelligence-based cloud computing resources remotely. Cloud computing services are resources like storage, databases, or software that you can access via the cloud. Using AI cloud services, you can access the power and resources of artificial intelligence without creating and training your own artificial intelligence model. 

If you have ever accessed an AI model over your internet browser, you have experience with an AI cloud service. Just like interacting with ChatGPT, you can access a wide variety of AI-based solutions via the cloud without the cost and time required to create your own solutions. 

Benefits of AI cloud services

AI cloud services are an efficient, scalable, and cost-effective way to access AI services like analytical processing power, automation, or virtual assistants. Instead of each company investing time and labor into creating and training an AI model, AI cloud services create a system where you can access only the AI resources you need on a pay-as-you-go model, similar to renting equipment. This allows you to purchase more AI services as your needs and your company grow, saving money in the short term and making AI services more accessible for small businesses and individuals. 

What can you use AI cloud services for?

You can use AI cloud services to access many applications that leverage AI, integrate AI solutions into your cloud computing environment, and use AI platforms to develop and deploy your own AI applications. A few use cases for AI cloud services include the following: 

• Chatbots: You can leverage customizable AI chatbots through cloud services, which you can then adapt and deploy for your own customers. 

• Multipurpose AI assistants: You can use AI cloud services to access generative AI or virtual assistants, in some cases training them on your company’s own data. 

• Generating content: You can access generative AI models through AI cloud services, helping you to generate business writing, code more efficiently, and shorten research time. 

• Machine learning and IoT: You can use AI cloud services to analyze the data you get from your Internet of Things (IoT) devices and learn over time. 

• Data analysis: AI cloud services can help you use AI for business intelligence and data analysis. 

What are the top 10 AI platforms?

Since you can use AI platforms in so many different ways, the top platforms for your needs will likely depend on a lot of factors. One way to think about the top AI companies overall is to consider the top 10 biggest companies with AI services. Starting with the largest company by market capitalization, these companies are [1]: 

- Apple

- NVIDIA

- Microsoft

- Alphabet (Google)

- Meta

- Tesla

- Oracle

- IBM

- Palantir

-Adobe

AI cloud services companies

Some of the biggest names in AI cloud services include Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft Azure, Oracle AI, Salesforce, and Amazon Web Services. Together, they offer a wide range of cloud AI services in different service models to fit your company’s artificial intelligence needs. With a projected market size of $397.81 billion by 2030 (growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 30.9 percent), new AI cloud services companies are coming to market all the time [2]. Explore the products and offerings from these top AI cloud services companies. 

Google Cloud 

Google Cloud offers over 150 products to help you access cloud computing and AI at scale [3]. You can find software-as-a-service models like Google Gemini or Gemini Code Assist. You can also access infrastructure-as-a-service, such as virtual machines and storage. Or, you can use Google Cloud’s platform-as-a-service to develop customized, cloud-native applications. 

IBM

IBM Cloud is a suite of over 230 products and services, including applications, infrastructure, and data and security solutions [4]. IBM watsonx offers a platform you can use to build and deploy artificial intelligence apps while offering infrastructure and framework for implementing—and scaling—AI. You can also use IBM Cloud security services for specific AI use cases. 

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure offers over 200 products and services for cloud computing [5]. Azure AI Foundry is the AI platform that powers artificial intelligence capabilities throughout Azure services. The company also has a catalog of more than 1,800 AI models you can adapt and integrate into your applications, allowing you to find the model that suits your needs. You can use Azure for applications in AI, app development, cloud migration, managing data and data analytics, infrastructure, IoT, and security and governance. 

Oracle Cloud AI

Oracle Cloud AI has over 150 services to offer, including Oracle applications for developers, integration, and storage; customer applications for networking, databases, and analytics; and apps from independent software vendors (ISVs), including computing, virtual machines, and big data [6]. 

Salesforce

Salesforce Artificial Intelligence has solutions you can implement for cloud AI services in sales, customer service, marketing, e-commerce, and custom application development. You can use Salesforce Einstein, the company’s AI-powered copilot, for tasks like generating sales copy. Salesforce Agentforce, the company’s customizable chatbot system, offers AI-powered customer service to your clients. 

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a bundle of cloud computing services with a variety of AI-integrated tools to help you leverage the power of artificial intelligence. AWS AI products include Amazon Q, an all-purpose chatbot you can train on your business data; Amazon Bedrock, a platform you can use to build and deploy AI applications; and a variety of other solutions for language, analytics, customer service, computer vision, business metrics, and more. 

AI cloud services models

You can access AI cloud services through different service models, which describe what kind of cloud computing resource you’re employing. Just like other types of cloud services, you can use AI as software-as-a-service, like Salesforce and OpenAI; platform-as-a-service, like IBM Cloud or Azure; or infrastructure-as-a-service, such as Google Cloud or NVIDIA Run:ai.

Challenges of AI cloud services

While AI cloud services can offer benefits like connecting you to cloud computing resources in a flexible, scalable way, you should also be aware of some of the challenges of AI-as-a-service. These include: 

Privacy: Data security and privacy are general challenges in cloud computing as data moves from computer to the cloud or from the cloud to your network. AI makes this challenge more complex, with the risk of AI exposing the data you share with it. 

Skill: Artificial intelligence and cloud services are being offered thanks to advances in computing and IT, leaving a talent gap in its wake as companies begin to implement these ideas without enough skilled professionals available on the employment market. Leveraging AI through cloud services may help alleviate this gap, but you may still need skilled professionals to manage your data and effectively implement your AI solutions. 

Learn how to use AI cloud services on Coursera

AI cloud services make it possible to access artificial intelligence at scale using cloud computing to deliver AI-as-a-service. You can learn more about working with AI cloud services on Coursera with programs like the AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Professional Certificate or the Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud Developer Professional Certificate. 

With the AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Professional Certificate, you will have the opportunity to make informed decisions about when and how to apply key AWS Services for computing, storage, database, networking, monitoring, and security; design architectural solutions, whether designing for cost, performance, and/or operational excellence to address common business challenges; and create and operate a data lake in a secure and scalable way, ingest and organize data into the data lake, and optimize performance and costs.

With the Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud Developer Professional Certificate, you’ll have the opportunity to identify the purpose and value of Google Cloud products and services; learn the skills needed to be successful in a cloud developer engineering role; choose among and use application deployment environments on Google Cloud: App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Compute Engine; and explore techniques for monitoring, troubleshooting, and improving infrastructure and application performance in Google Cloud.