Becca Szkutak, a senior writer at TechCrunch, reports on the increasing focus of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on custom Large Language Models (LLMs). AWS is clearly and aggressively evolving in keeping with enterprises’ rapidly changing needs. Of these businesses, 77% are looking to differentiate themselves from competitors by adopting customized AI solutions. This development is part of an even more positive nationwide trend. A poll we did at Menlo Ventures in July found that enterprises overwhelmingly favor LLMs from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Gemini.
The survey results further suggest that there is a strong and specific need for customization in AI models. Mehrotra, speaking on behalf of AWS helping to drive this trend. He explained, “A big challenge that many of our customers are facing is the question, ‘If my competitor has access to the same model, how do I differentiate myself? This sentiment reflects the challenges businesses face when deploying generic models that do not cater to specific industry needs or use cases.
AWS is on the cusp of a fantastic show about to take place in San Francisco, October 13-15 2026. The company is improving its model customization features in order to address key issues. Mehrotra stressed the need to tailor unique solutions to specific types of enterprises. He continued, “What we’ve found is that the answer to solving that problem is being able to develop these highly customized models.”
AWS’s emphasis on frontier LLMs reflects its broader mission to arm businesses of all kinds with the tools they need to supercharge their operations. The freedom to create tailored models means enterprises will be able to use their own data, while doubling down on maintaining identity that comes with using their brand. For instance, Mehrotra noted the ease of customization for specific sectors: “If you’re a healthcare customer and you wanted a model to be able to understand certain medical terminology better, you can simply point SageMaker AI, if you have labeled data, then select the technique and then off SageMaker goes, and [it] fine-tunes the model.”
Becca Szkutak’s reporting on new trends in venture capital and the startup world perfectly highlights her experience with this quickly growing and changing industry. If you would like to pitch outreach to TechCrunch, you can reach her by email at rebecca.szkutak@techcrunch.com.
