AWS Executive Insights

Security leadership has never been just about technology, but in the age of AI, the stakes for getting it right have never been higher. George Gerchow, Chief Security Officer at Bedrock Data, brings a candid and hard-won perspective on what it takes to build high-performing security teams and lead with purpose in a rapidly evolving threat landscape.
In conversation with Clarke Rodgers, Senior Principal from the Office of the CISO at AWS, George shares how the security leader's role has shifted from basement-level blocker to boardroom-level business partner, and why approachability, vulnerability, and transparency are now core leadership traits. He explores how AI is transforming both sides of the security equation, from agentic tools that help defenders scale, to AI-powered bots lowering the barrier to entry for threat actors.
From DevSecOps to responsible AI frameworks to the case for reviving defense in depth, this episode offers security leaders a grounded and practical perspective on building teams and strategies that can move fast without compromising trust.

AI is reshaping not just what software can do, but how it gets built and by whom. JB Brown, VP of Engineering at Smartsheet, shares how his team is navigating that shift from both sides of the equation, developing AI-powered capabilities for customers while fundamentally rethinking how engineers do their work.
In conversation with Chris McNabney, Director of Solution Architecture at AWS, JB explains how Smartsheet's intelligent work management vision, powered by a Knowledge Graph built on Amazon Neptune, is giving customers digital teammates that help drive strategic outcomes at a speed and scale previously out of reach. He also shares the concrete productivity gains his engineering teams are seeing with tools like Roo Code and Amazon Bedrock, including an 80% reduction in CI pipeline time and around a 60% drop in average token costs.
From managing agentic workflows to building AI that earns enterprise trust, this episode offers engineering and product leaders a grounded look at what it takes to lead AI transformation from the front.

What does it mean to secure the world's largest hyperscale cloud, while AI rewrites the rules of identity, threat detection, and security culture? In this episode of AWS Executive Insights: Security Series, Clarke Rodgers sits down with Amy Herzog, Chief Information Security Officer at AWS, for a candid conversation on what it takes to lead security at scale in the age of AI.
Amy draws on her experience leading consumer AI products to argue that security should accelerate innovation, not hinder it. She explores how AWS is deploying AI for defense, why agentic AI demands a rethink of identity, and how the Security Guardians program embeds security culture across the entire organization.

What distinguishes organizations that capture real value from AI from those still experimenting?
In this episode of AWS Executive Insights, Roger Premo, Global Head of Strategy at IBM, breaks down the practical lessons behind IBM’s own AI transformation. From embedding generative AI into everyday workflows to codifying an agentic development lifecycle, IBM has paired leadership commitment with disciplined execution to drive measurable results.
Premo discusses how hybrid cloud architecture enables agents to access data across heterogeneous environments, why data product management is now a business imperative, and how governance must be built into AI systems from the start. This essential discussion offers leaders a framework for moving beyond isolated pilots and building scalable, secure, and value-driven AI capabilities. Thank you to IBM for their partnership and participation in this discussion.

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.