AWS Executive Insights

AI transformation at enterprise scale isn't a project with a finish line; it's an organizational reckoning with how people learn, work, and create value. Vivian Sun, Senior Director of Data & AI at Jabil, brings that reality into sharp focus in this episode of AWS Executive Insights.In conversation with Taimur Rashid, Managing Director of the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, Vivian explains why AI demands continuous learning, not a one-time skillset. She also explores how Jabil's Octopus Organization model works in practice, with a central body setting strategy and guardrails, while distributed teams retain the freedom to innovate in the ways that work best for them. Together, these principles are what turn early pilots into lasting organizational change.This episode offers leaders a practical framework for scaling AI transformation across a global organization, while keeping people, not technology, at the center of the journey.

In this #AWSExecutiveInsights conversation, Tom Soderstrom, AWS Executive in Residence, talks with Erin Kraemer, Sr. Principal Technical Product Manager for AWS Agentic AI, who draws on 25 years at Amazon to explore how organizations move from AI experimentation to production, built on observability, guardrails, and bringing your people along the journey.

Dr. Ruba Borno, AWS Vice President of Global Specialists and Partners, shares her journey from refugee to technology leader and reveals what drives purpose-driven leadership. As a daughter of Palestinian refugees who came to the U.S. during the first Gulf War, she learned early that opportunity is a gift—and believes in "leaving the ladder there" for others to climb.In this conversation with host Richard Taylor, Dr. Borno discusses building high-performing teams, leading 18,000 engineers through COVID-19, and scaling customer support through AI innovation. She shares critical leadership lessons: ask the right questions rather than having all the answers, trust your instincts, and create environments where teams can safely innovate and fail.

What if AI's greatest potential isn't replacing humans—but empowering them? In this AWS Executive Insights fireside chat, Ian Wilson, VP of Senior Talent & Transformation at Amazon sits down with Edith Cooper, Co-Founder of Medley, Board Director at Amazon and PepsiCo, and former Goldman Sachs CHRO, to explore how leaders can navigate AI transformation while strengthening human connections. Cooper shares her "be bold and care" leadership philosophy, emphasizing that uncertainty demands more communication, not less. Discover how to create thriving workplaces where employees bring their full genius, apply human judgment to AI-driven insights, and build cultures of accountability and growth in partnership with other humans and AI technologies.

In this rebroadcast from the Executive Summit at re:Invent, AWS Executives in Residence Jana Werner and Phil Le-Brun deliver a powerful keynote challenging traditional transformation approaches by trading the risk of massive overhauls for a culture of continuous advancement. Drawing from their experience leading large-scale change across diverse organizations, they identify 40 common anti-patterns that prevent organizations from becoming better versions of themselves. You'll hear candid stories and hard-won leadership lessons from extreme mountaineers to world-class poker players and Amazon's own Day 1 culture. This session offers fresh perspective to help you bring laser-like clarity to your goals, foster true ownership among your teams, and free your organization to move at the speed of its best ideas.

In this special encore episode from AWS re:Invent, AWS CEO Matt Garman joins Acquired podcast co-hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal for an in-depth conversation on AI, agents, and the future of business. Listen in as Garman shares his leadership journey from AWS intern to CEO, discusses why inference is becoming a fundamental building block for developers, and reveals how AI is enabling smaller teams to deliver exponentially more value. He also explores the organizational shifts enterprises must make to stay competitive, the evolution of agentic AI, and why agility and speed remain critical regardless of technological change.To catch the full interview session featuring additional speakers, Max Neukirchen (J.P. Morgan Payments), Greg Peters (Netflix), and Aravind Srivinas (Perplexity), click here to watch on YouTube -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ExjNvGYDiU.

How will agentic AI reshape tomorrow’s workforce? Join AWS Executives in Residence Stephen Brozovich, Jake Burns, and Miriam McLemore for a look at how agentic AI is changing entire enterprises—not just IT departments. Unlike previous technology shifts, agentic AI demands integrated cross-functional teams and a fundamental rethinking of competitive advantage. Our experts share candid thoughts on upskilling existing employees over hiring new talent, transforming data from siloed assets into accessible strategic resources, and building authentic experimentation cultures where leadership genuinely rewards risk-taking. Discover why your proprietary data—not the AI technology itself—will become your key differentiator, and learn how to build the agile, integrated teams essential for AI implementation success.