AWS Executive Insights

Most organizations are experimenting with AI. Far fewer are transforming with it. Bernhard Mühlreiter, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, makes the case for why that gap is closing and what it takes to be on the right side of it.
In conversation with Richard Taylor, Retail and Consumer Goods Lead APJ at AWS, Mühlreiter outlines the three things that distinguish AI leaders: bold ambition, managing AI as a true transformation program, and broad-based capability building. He explores why lack of speed remains the biggest disappointment he sees in organizations today, and why, as Andy Jassy has noted, speed is ultimately a leadership decision.
From T-shaped transformation frameworks to agile "digital factory" team structures, this episode offers executives a clear-eyed and practical perspective on how to move from isolated pilots to enterprise-wide AI impact.

Enterprise transformation is entering a new phase, and the organizations that get it right won't just be adopting A; they'll be fundamentally rethinking how work gets done. Rajendra Prasad, Group Chief Executive at Accenture Technology, shares how Accenture is helping enterprises use AI as an innovation lens to redesign core business processes, not just automate them.
In conversation with Shaown Nandi, Vice President of AWS Technology, RP introduces Accenture's Reinvention Deployment Engineers (RDEs), a new class of talent that combines deep technology expertise, industry and business process knowledge, and change management capability to drive enterprise reinvention at scale. He also shares his framework for measuring AI ROI, why embedded instrumentation of value is non-negotiable, and what C-suite leaders need to understand about the shift from BI to AI as the new user interface.
For leaders navigating the pressure to adopt AI quickly while delivering real business impact, this episode offers a practical and compelling roadmap.

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.