The AWS SDK (Amazon Web Services Software Development Kit) is a collection of tools and libraries that help developers build applications that interact with AWS services. It provides a set of APIs and code samples in various programming languages, making it easier to integrate cloud functionalities like storage, computing, and databases into applications. By using the AWS SDK, developers can simplify tasks such as authentication, data management, and service requests. This allows them to focus on writing their application logic rather than dealing with the complexities of cloud infrastructure, ultimately speeding up the development process.