Final answer:
An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a virtual machine image used to create instances in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform.
Step-by-step explanation:
An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a virtual machine image used to create instances in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. It provides a ready-to-use environment that includes the operating system, applications, and associated configuration settings. AMIs are like templates that enable users to launch virtual servers, commonly known as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances, with just a few clicks.