AWS re:Invent 2025 -Generative AI excellence: How AWS Partners help customers from strategy to scale

AWS re:Invent 2025 - Generative AI Excellence: How AWS Partners Help Customers from Strategy to Scale

Overview of the AI Competency at AWS

• The AI Competency is AWS's top mechanism to help customers find partners with specialized expertise, technical abilities, and commercial success in AI.
• The competency recently expanded to include the Agentic AI category, reflecting the growing importance of this emerging technology.
• The presenter, as the lead of the AI Competency program, will share insights on customer trends and partner success based on industry research and surveys.

AI Adoption Trends

• Nearly 75% of customers are using at least one generative AI application in their business functions.
• 50% of customers have successfully transitioned generative AI models into production, demonstrating real-world results.
• 40% of customers have already seen the expected benefits from their AI deployments.
• Customers are moving from AI strategy to action, with 60% of companies now having a dedicated Chief AI Officer role.
• The focus is shifting from generative AI to the emerging field of Agentic AI, with 90% of companies planning to implement Agentic AI within the next 12 months.

Barriers to AI Adoption and Scaling

• While 75% of customers believe they can scale their AI applications, only 40% are actually achieving scale in production.
• Common barriers include:
  • Challenges with data foundations and model scalability
  • Technical complexities in implementation
  • Change management and user adoption issues
  • Limitations of current AI solutions and poor customer support

The Critical Role of AWS Partners

• 85% of customers expect to maintain or increase their reliance on partners over the next 1-3 years for AI initiatives.
  • Partners are essential at every stage of the AI adoption journey, from ideation to deployment.
  • Customers are leveraging a diverse ecosystem of partners, including foundation model providers, technology companies, ISVs, and service providers.
• Key deployment challenges that partners can help address include:
  • Defining business cases and value creation
  • Developing data strategies and governance frameworks
  • Ensuring security and compliance
  • Driving change management and upskilling internal teams

Resources for AWS Partners

• The AI Partner Journey framework outlines four key pillars for partners:
  1. Build: Developing AI-ready solutions and defining AI strategy
  2. Market: Amplifying visibility and developing go-to-market plans
  3. Co-Sell: Coordinating with AWS sales teams and aligning strategies
  4. Grow: Elevating partner capabilities and accessing premium marketing activations
• The AWS AI Competency provides validation and visibility for partners with demonstrated expertise and commercial success in AI.
• The AWS AI and Data Knowledge Center offers a wealth of resources, including the latest customer research, sales plays, and a use case library.
• The AWS Partner Playbook is a comprehensive guide for partners to maximize alignment and collaboration with AWS throughout their AI journey.

Key Takeaways

• AI adoption, particularly in the realm of Agentic AI, is accelerating rapidly, with customers seeking partners to help them navigate the complexities.
• While many customers have achieved success with generative AI, scaling these solutions and overcoming technical, organizational, and change management challenges remains a significant hurdle.
• AWS partners play a critical role in supporting customers throughout the entire AI adoption lifecycle, from ideation to deployment and scaling.
• AWS provides a robust set of resources, competencies, and programs to help partners build, market, co-sell, and grow their AI capabilities and offerings.