Automating my Life with AWS & AI

PLUS: Amazon Nova Sonic - AI that understands how you speak!

Author

Lucy Wang
April 12, 2025

In partnership with

In Today’s Cloudbites:

🛠️ Build with Me: Automating Receipt Processing with AWS

🤔 Want more hands-on Cloud Projects?

☁️ Online Cloud Events to Look Forward to

🤖 PLUS: Amazon Nova Sonic - AI that understands how you speak!

Read time: 5 minutes

Hi friends, welcome back to Cloudbites

In this newsletter, I’ll introduce you to a step-by-step guide for creating an AWS project that automates your daily tasks using AWS and AI.

CLOUD COMPUTING ☁️

🛠️ Build with Me: Automating Receipt Processing with AWS

Do you want to build a fun AWS project to add to your portfolio?

If you struggle with keeping track of paper receipts, this project is for you! 

We're building a system that automatically processes receipt images, extracts key information, stores it, and even emails you a summary.

🎯 The Goal: To create an automated workflow that takes receipt images (like scans or photos) and organizes the important data digitally, saving you time and hassle.  

📘 AWS Services Used: We'll use a combination of AWS services, all within the Free Tier:

  1. Amazon S3: To upload and store the receipt image files securely.  

  2. Amazon Textract: To automatically extract text and data from the receipts using AI.  

  3. Amazon DynamoDB: To store the extracted data (like vendor name, date, total amount) in a structured NoSQL database table.  

  4. Amazon SES (Simple Email Service): To send you an email summary of the processed receipt details.  

  5. AWS Lambda: To act as the serverless compute engine, orchestrating the entire process whenever a new receipt is uploaded.  

⏲️ Level & Time: This is an intermediate-level project, takes about 30-60 minutes, and can be done within the AWS Free Tier.

If you want the detail walkthrough of the implementation of the project, check out my recent YouTube video on Build With Me: Automating My Life with AWS & AI (Cloud Project)

🛠️ The Build (How it Works): The project involves connecting these services together. Here's a high-level look at the implementation steps:

  1. Setup Storage: Create an Amazon S3 bucket to act as our landing zone for new receipt uploads. We'll even make an 'incoming' folder for organization.

  2. Create Database: Set up a DynamoDB table named 'Receipts' with specific keys ('receipt_id' and 'date') to store the extracted data in a structured way.

  3. Configure Notifications: Verify your email address with Amazon SES so the system can send you the processed receipt summaries.

  4. Establish Security: Create an IAM role specifically for our Lambda function, granting it the necessary permissions.

  5. Create a Lambda Function: Create the 'Receipt Processor' Lambda function using Python 3.9 and increase the timeout to handle longer Textract processing times.

  6. Add the Code: Replace the default Lambda code with the provided Python script (available in the video description!) .

  7. Connect the Trigger: Set up an S3 Event Notification on the 'incoming/' folder in our bucket to automatically trigger our Lambda function on new uploads.

  8. Test it Out! Upload a sample receipt to the 'incoming' folder in S3, and watch the magic happen! Check DynamoDB for the new entry and your email for the summary.

🤔 Want more hands-on AWS Cloud Projects?

This receipt processing project is actually one of five in my newly released course: 5 Intermediate AWS Cloud Projects! 

If you enjoyed this build and are looking for more practical projects to add to your portfolio and resume, I highly recommend checking it out. 

Each project comes with detailed instructions and access to a Slack community if you need help.

Feeling like these ones are a bit too advanced? No worries, I also have a 5 Beginner-level cloud projects course available!

☁️ Online Cloud Events to Look Forward to

#1 AWS Discovery Day: Cloud Practitioner Essentials (April 22, 2025)

A 5-hour virtual event designed for business leaders and IT pros covering foundational AWS services.

Click here to register.

#2 AWS Discovery Day: Introduction to Generative AI Essentials (April 25, 2025)

Join the virtual session which will provide an understanding of generative AI, how it can address business challenges, and key considerations for planning Gen AI projects.

Click here to register.

#3 Cloud and SaaS in GxP Webinar (May 6, 2025)

Learn the basics of Cloud terminology and implementation models, including SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.

Click here to register.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 🤖

🤖 PLUS: Amazon Nova Sonic - AI that understands how you speak!

Amazon recently announced Amazon Nova Sonic, a new AI foundation model available on Amazon Bedrock designed for more natural, human-like voice conversations.

Unlike traditional systems that piece together separate models for speech recognition, text generation, and speech synthesis, Nova Sonic uses a unified architecture. 

This means it doesn't just understand what you say, but also how you say it – picking up on tone, pitch, pauses, and hesitations.

THAT’S A WRAP

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