By Olivia Witt, Katy Nally

Image by Julianne Medenblik

Okay, okay, we get it: You don’t want to add to your already growing list of to-dos before your big event. But, this will really make you look like a marketing rock star—and it just requires a little coordination up front for a big payoff in the end.  

Let’s say you’re knee-deep in planning mode for your marquee event and you’ve got a few customers lined up to speak during different sessions. Or, you’ve invited a few big-name customers who are psyched about attending. Great! Since they’re already making the trip out there to participate, you should also shoot a quick on-site customer testimonial where they say amazing things about your product. But wait—there’s more! That video is a goldmine for social posts and you can use the transcripts to create written case studies. 

We’ve done it before and can confidently say this approach offers 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If you’re ready to pull this off, here are some tips from our video experts to keep in mind.  

Book a conference room or carve out space in the main venue. There are usually rooms available at large conference centers that you can reserve ahead of time for your production studio. Our video team travels light and can set up wherever and whenever you need us. And if a room isn’t available, shooting on the event floor provides an engaging backdrop, even if it does pose a few audio challenges. Just be sure to coordinate with the conference center to find a space that works.  

Prep the customer(s) so they can schedule time and review talking points. Once your customers are confirmed for the event, ask them if they can carve out 90 minutes to do a quick testimonial shoot. Chances are your large event attracts multiple big-name customers, so plan on doing a few interviews to maximize your time with the film crew. After you schedule folks, be sure to send over talking points that outline what you’d like to capture.  

Bring in a host for a lively conversation. One way to change up the testimonial format is to have a host or moderator share the spotlight with your customer. This can provide a conversational flow to the video and it takes the pressure off your customer to do a solo show. 

Line up a content vendor (us 😉) to make derivative assets. Hooray! That’s a wrap on your videos—now it’s time to turn them into nurture assets following the event. We’ll help you transform the full-length interview into social cut-downs to keep the event buzz going. And we’ll also develop written case studies using the transcripts so you have an evergreen story for partner and/or customer sites.  

Now you just have to ask yourself, what’s your next event and whose testimonial can you capture? Contact us to start planning today. 

By Liz Mangini

Image by Julianne Medenblik

Earning a new AWS Competency is a major milestone. It validates your technical expertise, demonstrates customer success, and helps you stand out in a competitive marketplace. While the initial announcement brings well-deserved recognition, sustaining that momentum is key to driving lasting impact. 

That’s where 2A’s competency launch bundle comes in.  

Maximize the impact of your competency with a comprehensive, structured, nine-month-long, always-on campaign designed to keep your message—and the value of your services—front and center. An always-on campaign helps fill any post-launch gaps many partners face by providing a clear, proactive plan to maintain visibility and engagement over time. 
 
Make a splash when you announce your new competency with some of these foundational launch assets: 

• Animated or UI demo video highlights key features and functionality 
• Implementation guide helps streamline customer adoption 
• Internal adoption kit equips internal teams with clear messaging 
• Roadmap deck communicates upcoming features and milestones 
• Press release formally announces your new competency and business value 

But don’t stop after the initial announcement! Keep your achievement top of mind by publishing fresh content aligned with key stages in your customers’ buying journey. 

Month 1: Initial awareness and announcement 

• Announcement blog and emails 
• Landing page content 
• Social card kit 

Month 3: Deeper engagement and education 

• Solution brief 
• Infographic 
• Invite and follow-up email 
• Call script 

Month 6: Continued engagement and lead nurturing 

• Ebook 
• Email series 
• Video 

Month 9: Long-term value and thought leadership 

• Whitepaper 
• Podcast episode 

Your AWS Competency is more that just a milestone—it’s a launchpad 

This always-on strategy ensures your AWS Competency—and the differentiated offerings it represents—continues to deliver value beyond the launch. With a steady stream of strategic content, you’ll educate your audience, nurture leads, and position your brand as a trusted AWS expert. 

Your AWS Competency is just the beginning—let’s make sure the world knows about it. With our competency launch bundle fueling visibility, credibility, and long-term success, you’ll keep your solutions in the spotlight. Ready to get started? Contact us. 

By Jane Dornemann

Image credit: Chris Feige

Gossip (for nerds) 

• AWS fell short on cloud revenue for the third straight quarter despite a 17% increase in revenue (less than the increase from the quarter before). 
• Quarterly earnings for Microsoft came with good news—earnings rose 13% and profits rose 18%, which Nadella attributed to cloud growth. This news led stock to rise by 6%, which does nothing for me when I buy a can of peaches for $5. Microsoft reduced its spending on AI by $1B this past quarter. (Probably to buy canned peaches.) But keep in mind, the tariffs haven’t hit Microsoft where it hurts—yet. That’s coming. 
• That’s why AWS is prepping sales and technical teams to answer customer concerns about how the tariffs will affect prices, data privacy, and foreign business relations. Read a summary here, though it is dangerously optimistic and fluffy. The tech leaders quoted at the end aren’t buying the “everything will be fine” sentiment. 
• A year after hiring AI bigshot Mustafa Suleyman to lead Microsoft’s AI department, Copilot adoption is lagging behind ChatGPT. 
• CIOs are in the mood to negotiate contracts with cloud providers following AWS price revisions and Google Cloud discounts. Cloud companies are willing to do this if it means becoming an organization’s vendor of choice for AI integration, which locks in a long-term commitment. 
• The article is paywalled, but word is that AWS customers are dissatisfied with the AWS service for accessing models like Anthropic and Bedrock, and they’ve started looking for alternatives. Maybe AWS pulled an Amazon Prime, where you pay for one-day shipping and free movies and then get neither? 
• Half of Microsoft customers would move to AWS if the former’s licensing costs weren’t so restrictive, says AWS to the UK government. 
• The “frontier firm,” according to Microsoft, is the new…regular firm. It’s structured around on-demand intelligence and powered by “hybrid” teams of humans paired with agents. We shall become “agent bosses” that manage AI agents, not people. And the people who were once managed, well, good luck to them! 

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• AWS and academic publisher Wiley have partnered to create an open-source AI agent that allows researchers to perform full-text searches across life sciences literature, reducing research tasks from days to minutes by integrating Wiley’s authoritative content with technology from Amazon Bedrock Agents. 
• Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are backing a mining startup in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As you may recall, the mining industry is known for its reliance on child labor and dangerous, exploitative worker practices. Apparently, the startup will use AI to identify untapped minerals—like the “massive lithium deposit [it’s] eyeing.” The startup hails from the NIMBY paradise of Berkeley, CA. 
• But why settle for a hill of corporate evil when you can have a mountain of it? Microsoft is preparing to host Elon Musk’s Grok AI model in the company’s Azure AI Foundry, and will potentially infuse it across Microsoft apps and services. 
• Industrial IoT company Litmus is partnering with Microsoft to deliver edge-to-cloud solutions that take real-time data from connected industrial devices. 
• Nasdaq and AWS are creating a blueprint for moving stock exchanges to cloud infrastructure, starting with three international stock exchanges. 
• ClearScale will work with AWS as part of the Small Business Acceleration Initiative program to help small and medium businesses access cloud tools, new technologies, and AI guidance for digital transformations. 
• Clario and AWS are collaborating on the partner’s generative AI platform for processing clinical trial documents and data, hoping to accelerate drug development timelines. 

World domination 

• Microsoft is making a big commitment to its European presence, with an expansion plan for 16 datacenters, doubling the current capacity. There are obvious political undertones in Microsoft’s formal statement. 
• Activists blockaded an AWS datacenter in Quebec, protesting Amazon’s layoffs of over 4,000 workers and demanding the company return public funds. 

New stuff 

• GitLab Duo with Amazon Q is now generally available. GitLab’s integration with Amazon Q Developer connects AI agents for application developers with GitLab’s generative AI tools to support the entire software development cycle. 
• Microsoft has brought People Skills to Copilot for HR departments. It acts as a skills-inference and management agent that lets companies identify and monitor the skills of their employees. 
• IBM has launched a specialized Microsoft Practice within its consulting arm. It will help businesses with personalized transformations involving Copilot, Azure OpenAI, Azure Cloud, Fabric, and Sentinel. 
• Anthropic has formed a new team to recruit AWS customers that want to use its AI products. The team will help customers accelerate adoption through scalable programs. 
• Deloitte has launched AI Advantage for CFOs, a comprehensive AI-powered finance platform built in collaboration with AWS and Anthropic, which combines Finance Automation Agents and AI finance analysis capabilities to transform finance operations across industries. 
• Meta’s Llama 4 models—Scout 17B and Maverick 17B—are now available on AWS via Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker JumpStart. They offer advanced multimodal capabilities, including image and text processing, and efficient performance through a mixture-of-experts architecture. 
• AWS has launched Mistral AI’s Pixtral Large as a fully managed serverless model in Amazon Bedrock, offering advanced visual and linguistic capabilities across multiple regions. 
• Amazon Nova Sonic is a new foundation model in Amazon Bedrock that unifies speech understanding and generation to help developers create natural, human-like voice conversations in AI applications with better performance and lower costs. 
• AWS released its Well-Architected Generative AI Lens, providing architectural best practices and a framework for evaluating generative AI workloads built on AWS, covering model selection, prompt engineering, customization, and integration. 
• The ‘Move to AI’ Modernization Pathway is a new program from AWS that will help organizations systematically identify and implement AI opportunities within their existing application portfolios. 

Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security 

Hackers stole thousands of Amazon S3 keys as part of a (honestly brilliant) ransomware campaign. Some users are STILL unaware that their keys have been compromised, but it doesn’t matter because it’s “virtually impossible” to undo the damage. The tactics represent a “‘significant escalation in cloud ransomware tactics.’” Read the article to learn how they did it. 

By Sarah Silva, Andrea Swangard

Image by Julianne Medenblik

Events take an incredible amount of energy, planning, and coordination. At 2A, we know that firsthand. Our team often helps bring those events to life, from building landing pages and emails to crafting talking points and presentations. But one of the smartest assets we’ve helped create came after the big day: a pair of post-event ebooks that captured the energy and insights of a major AWS Financial Services Symposium, turning them into lasting, reusable content. 

The AWS Financial Services Symposium featured two parallel tracks: one for AWS customers and one for partners. Each session was filled with powerful examples of innovation, transformation, and success. But with so many sessions running concurrently, even attendees couldn’t take in everything. And for those who couldn’t make it? The content would have been lost. 

That’s where our team came in! 

Turning real-time content into long-term value 

Working closely with both the partner and customer marketing teams at AWS, we produced two summary ebooks—one for each track. These ebooks distilled hours of speaker sessions into clear, digestible insights tailored to the intended audiences. Our approach was especially effective: we pre-designed the ebook layout before the event, so when transcripts arrived, we were ready to go. We published quickly—while the event was still fresh in everyone’s minds. 

Gaining big benefits from an event-based ebook 

• Maximized event ROI: The ebooks gave AWS a tangible, lasting asset that extended the value of its one-day event far beyond the closing remarks. 
• Recognition for speakers and sponsors: Partners were featured based on sponsorship tier, giving extra visibility to key contributors. 
• Evergreen content for future use: Customers and partners alike could use their inclusion in these ebooks for their own marketing, which also increases the reach of AWS. 
• Accessible to all: The ebooks were shared via follow-up emails and landing pages, ensuring that attendees and non-attendees could engage with the content. 

Giving your event a second (and third) act 

If you’re hosting an event—big or small—think about how you can capture and repurpose that content. 

• Create a post-event ebook to summarize key sessions 
• Turn standout quotes into infographics or social posts 
• Write a blog that highlights themes or insights from the event 
• Use session transcripts to feed future content planning 

Your event doesn’t have to be a one-and-done scenario. With the right follow-up asset, you can expand its influence, give your attendees something shareable, and show your broader audience what they missed. 

Want help making your next event last longer than a day? We’d love to collaborate. 

By Abby Breckenridge

Image by Nicole Todd

What trends am I seeing for spring? Butter yellow, oversized blazers, and asking marketing agency owners how they’re using AI. 

It’s a good question—and certainly one that no self-respecting agency leader is ignoring. It’s just that the hype levels have gotten a bit, how shall we say it, inauthentic. 

So here’s my answer: we’re embracing AI as a tool to help us do the work our clients need better and faster! And we’re doing it in a way that aligns with our values. 

Here’s what I mean: 

We’re helpful. We’re using AI tools in ways that are helpful to us and our clients. When it gets work done faster and better? Then it’s an AI yes. We’re using AI to help us parse resources more thoroughly, brainstorm 25 header options instead of 10, and check for the right voice and tone throughout content. 

We’re serious about our work. Our clients choose us for our high-quality deliverables and smooth client experience, and we’re serious about continuing to stand out in those ways. When AI helps us deeply engage with our work, we’re all in. Today, that means taking a client’s messaging framework and using gen AI to quickly create derivative assets like one-pagers, ebooks, and banner ads. The result? More content for better value. Tomorrow, it could mean something else. 

We work to build trust. Human relationships mean a lot in our business. We’re seeing many faceless offerings pop up, such as “become an AI expert in 10 days” and “accomplish your tasks at warp speed.” We maintain the trust of our clients, and in turn, their audiences’ trust in them, by using our expertise to refine work. We’re experts in our clients’ brands, their differentiators, and their customers’ pain points—so when AI spits out something off, we spot it. 

We tack toward improvement. Lucky for us and our clients, we’re a curious bunch. Our team gets excited about testing new approaches and refining based on what we learn. Gen AI tools are no different. Nothing drains a creative team faster than doing the same thing repeatedly for days on end. And the possibilities of today’s (and tomorrow’s) tools have us pumped. 

Seeking marketing assets that work, and an energizing client experience? Give us a ping. And, if you see me around town in my oversized butter-yellow blazer, please say hello. 

By Nora Bright, Jack Foraker

Image by Nicole Todd

Finding great talent is tough and getting tougher. Job postings are flooded with unqualified candidates, hiring team resources are stretched thin, and managers have to juggle hiring on top of their day-to-day responsibilities. On the other side of the screen, job seekers are faring no better: They’re often one of thousands of applicants for an open position, which can lead to a hiring process that feels cold and impersonal. 

As a consulting agency that also provides recruiting and staffing services, we see the hiring process from both sides at 2A. We know hiring is always an investment—of time, resources, and money. So it’s no wonder that companies turn to recruiting agencies to help surface stronger candidates faster and make sure they invest in the right people from the start.  

Here’s why working with one is the smartest (and ultimately most cost-effective) move to make: 

Access top talent and industry knowledge  

Recruiting agencies often specialize in a particular industry or function, and if you choose the right firm, they’ll understand the roles you’re hiring for and the skills that matter. Because we specialize in marketing and creative roles in tech, we have a strong pulse on the roles as well as the job market: who’s hiring, who’s moving, and what it takes to compete as an employer. We also have deep networks packed with top marketers, designers, program managers, and more. That includes the kind of passive candidates who aren’t scrolling job boards but are open to the right offer.  

Save serious time 

Hiring is a full-time job in and of itself. (Ask us how we know.) Reviewing resumes, managing outreach, and scheduling and conducting candidate screens adds up fast. A recruiter takes the first and most time-consuming stages of hiring off your plate, which means your team can focus on growing your business instead of chasing candidates. 

Get expert guidance 

The best recruiters stay closely involved throughout the process. We’ll make sure your communication is clear, your candidates stay warm, and your offers are competitive.  

Sell your opportunity 

Top candidates (the candidates you want) have options. A strong recruiter knows how to tell your company’s story in a compelling way, so candidates will be more excited to explore your team—and be more likely to say yes to an offer. 

In the end, that’s what 2A Recruiting & Staffing is about: making it easier to find standout people. We connect you with vetted marketing and creative talent, so you have more time to focus on your goals—not sorting through resumes. 

Ready to find your next great hire? We should chat. 

By Carolyn Lange

Image by Suzanne Calkins

You packed the booth. You nailed the session. You charmed every badge-wearing human in the conference room. What now? 

If you don’t have a plan to keep the post-event energy alive, all that effort just becomes a memory instead of a real pipeline.  

Don’t let it fizzle—here’s how to keep the excitement going even after the lanyards come off. 

Follow up like a human, not a robot 

“Thanks for stopping by our booth!” just doesn’t have the warmth and personalization that makes folks want to open an email. Personalize your post-event follow up outreach. If you had the chance to meet, reference a conversation you had or the swag they picked up. And reach out as soon as possible so they don’t feel like an afterthought. 

Give them something worth remembering 

Help your audience relive their favorite moments with recap content. Write a highlights blog to summarize the key takeaways, what you learned, and what surprised you. Or create an infographic. People love a snackable “5 things we learned” moment. Whatever you create, make it easy to skim and easy to share with their work pals. 

Stay on their radar 

Nobody leaves an event thinking, “Wow, I wish I had less info about that cool technology I saw.” Leave them with content to keep them curious and move them to that next funnel stage. Try: 

• A solution brief 
• A product datasheet 
• An exclusive offer 

Pro tip: Plant these takeaways before the event wraps. Add a QR code to your deck or your booth. You could even tack a QR code onto some sweet swag. 

Momentum isn’t magic. It’s a mix of smart follow-ups, well-placed takeaways, shareable content, and yes, a little bit of swag. Keep showing up in ways that are useful, fun, and genuine, and you’ll stay top of mind long after the plane ride home. 

By Carolyn Lange

Image by Emily Zheng

At 2A, we can write a great story and create slick visuals. But you may not know we also make swag that people actually want to keep. Whether it’s a sticker sheet, socks with a tech-y twist, or a wine bottle and tumbler set that says, “I know how to party—and I know my cloud infrastructure,” we’ve done it all. 

Here’s a peek at some of the goodies we’ve made lately. 

Sticker sheets that turn services like Azure Cosmos DB into adorable astronauts

Socks that match your shoes and your brand

Jackets to keep your clients cozy at conferences 

Mint tins to freshen up your giveaways 

Team swag that brings your culture to life 

🎁 Curated gift boxes with laser-engraved wine tumblers if you’re feeling fancy 

Looking for ideas? Think of your audience, convention-goers, or internal team. Are they… 

• Thirsty? Water bottle. 
• Hungry? Branded snacks. 
• Cold? Sweatshirt and gloves. 
• Short-handed? A roomy tote bag.
• On-the-go? Travel mug or packing cubes.
• Tech savvy? Power bank or laptop sleeve.
• Zoom-fatigued? Blue-light glasses.
• In Seattle? Something plaid. It’s pretty much the uniform. 

Want to snag some swag for your team or event? Let’s talk. We’ll help you dream it up and turn your brand into something memorable. 

By Jane Dornemann

Image by Nicole Todd

More than two years following the debut of generative AI, companies that brought the technology to their workforces want a return on their investment. Wait—if so cool, why no ROI? Because employees aren’t adopting it effectively. 

A survey from Accenture found that 55% of employees said they’d gain the confidence to use generative AI tools if they had clear guidance and comprehensive training. Perhaps that would close the 20% gap between how C-suite leaders and their employees understand the potential value of AI “to a great extent.” 

So, we have an adoption problem. And as marketers shift their focus to agentic AI, this low adoption rate can make it challenging for prospects to continue on their AI journey. If organizations don’t generate an ROI, they’re less likely to consider the value of agentic AI—and might be skeptical about its ability to uncover invaluable sales leads or enter new markets. 

Fear not! 2A is here to help you grow your generative AI accounts by targeting the end user in a way that will drive ROI. Here are a few things you (and we) can do: 

Produce case studies for everyone. Case studies are middle-to-bottom-of-funnel assets, which are great for helping business and technology decision-makers see a clear path to employee use and ROI. Because we’re talking about technology, it’s easy to default to focusing on the IT and development, or “backend,” aspect of adoption. With agentic AI, we need to think differently. Using new technology to yield real change in a business depends as much on the front of house, so don’t be afraid to be less technical in an agentic AI case study. Spotlight Alex from accounting when he gets to his desk in the morning. It will show leadership how the technology is applied in day-to-day operations that affect the bottom line (versus the journey to a successful integration) and give potential buyers a sense of how it materializes in and improves workflows. Beyond the C-suite, these case studies are shareable with the end user so they can also understand the value and usability of agentic AI for as many use cases as possible. 

Customize end-user guides. Pair your pitch with end-user guides to help employees start using your agentic AI solution, which you can distribute once the customer is on board. These guides should keep it simple, avoid technical jargon, and focus on what users need to get started. For example, instead of explaining the science behind large language models, start with why the tool matters: “You can ask your agent a question or give it a command,” or “You’ll get better results if you provide your agent with a sample of what you’re looking for.” Use real examples to illustrate key points, and consider a tiered approach, such as basic guides for beginners and advanced ones for power users. Most importantly, customize these guides by industry with content marketers who understand sector-specific terms, pain points, and goals for different roles within an industry’s organization. 

At 2A, we love brainstorming, building, and designing end-user materials—and we’re ready to help you boost conversion with this oft-forgotten ingredient for marketing magic. Contact us to get started. 

By Jane Dornemann

Wheelin’ and dealin’ 

• Genetic medicine company ElevateBio is collaborating with AWS to accelerate drug development using CRISPR gene editing therapeutics. 
• A bunch of energy companies created the Open Power AI Consortium to develop AI tools that will improve grid reliability, with Microsoft and AWS as founding members. Part of what is driving this is concern over utility demands for powering AI. This is like when Brazil cut down eight miles of rainforest to build a highway to its climate summit.  
• Cloud-based vegetation management sounds like what a stoner does all weekend but it’s actually a real thing from Hitachi, and it will now get a boost from AWS. Because guess what—we need more reliable energy infrastructure. The lights keep going out on our tomatoes because we all need to ask ChatGPT to give us a picture of a cat wearing cowboy boots and stuff.
• Both Microsoft and AWS have entered deals with Siemens, the global technology conglomerate. Siemens will develop its Industrial Foundation Model on Azure and has been working on a digital building platform with AWS. 
• When I worked for a PR agency our top customer was Adobe, and I had to go to the Adobe Summit every year in Vegas, and one time the hotel messed up booking so I had to share a room with my boss and I thought she was asleep but she wasn’t, and in the dark she suddenly asked if I wanted to gamble and I said YES so we changed out of our PJs and went to play Blackjack. Except she just wanted ME to play, not her, so I did, and I was up like $200 and ready to walk away but she pressured me to keep going and I lost it all on the next hand and then we went back to bed. But anyway, this year at Adobe Summit the company announced it’s going to build new integrations with AWS generative AI services, Amazon Connect, and Amazon Ads. 
• Adobe didn’t only announce integrations with AWS generative AI tools at Adobe Summit. It will also extend its integrations with Microsoft by activating Adobe Marketing Agent in Teams, PowerPoint, Word, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. 

World domination 

• AWS signed an agreement with Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, which will involve developing new standards for cloud environments and helping European businesses meet requirements via AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
• Denmark’s Danske Bank is migrating all its applications, data, and infrastructure to AWS. 

New stuff  

• Amazon Q in QuickSight has new scenario analysis capabilities that support non-technical people in building data models and asking exploratory “what if” questions, like “What if we CRISPRed a bunch of lizards to build a fleet of dinosaurs for a luxury dinosaur taxi service, do you think business would finally designate dinosaur parking spaces, yes or no?”
• Working with AWS and Anthropic, Deloitte launched AI Advantage. It provides intelligent analytics and insights, along with an agent that automates finance tasks, using Amazon Bedrock and Anthropic’s LLMs. 
• Microsoft showed the world what’s come out of its Azure AI Foundry thus far. It released agent framework, which simplifies the orchestration of multi-agent systems. And, there’s AI Red Teaming, an AI that systematically probes (ooooh, say more) other AI models to flag safety risks. 
• Oh, did you think we were done with agents for today? No. Microsoft’s Researcher agent addresses multi-step research at work while its Analyst agent “thinks like a skilled data scientist” to get insights in minutes.  
• Connected to work at the AI Foundry, NVIDIA has several things going with Microsoft, including the AgentIQ toolkit for real-time agent monitoring and optimization.  
• On a different day, Microsoft announced multiple new capabilities for its Security Copilot agents—they can provide threat intelligence briefings, optimize conditional access, and more. 
• AWS has made multi-agent collaboration in Amazon Bedrock generally available. This will make it easier for developers to churn out and manage AI agents that work together to carry out complex tasks…like training dinosaurs to drive. 
• At Google Cloud Next, Google announced new features to its Agentspace that will lower the barrier to adoption. No-code agent creation pulls in users of all technical levels and the new Tensor Processing Unit and AI Hypercomputer both boost the cloud provider’s presence in AI hardware and software. Several other announcements, including agent-to-agent communication protocol, show that Google’s AI investments are paying off. 

Ma’am, I’m going to have to call security 

• Google is set to acquire cybersecurity company Wiz in a $32B deal that the tech giant will use to make its cloud platform more secure. The company also announced new security agents. 

Professional pivots  

• The VP of AI/ML services for AWS, who oversaw solutions like Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, has left after a year. Personally, I am less baffled by his one-year tenure than I am by the fact that he spells out hashtag in his LinkedIn profile before using an actual hashtag.  
• The general manager of generative AI at AWS is leaving to launch his own company. PLEASE PLEASE let it be a dinosaur parking logistics company. 

Gossip (for nerds) 

• An ex-senior product manager is suing AWS for discrimination, claiming she was laid off because of her gender and age. When AWS laid off people in 2023, it reduced the percentage of women in leadership positions from 62.5% to 28.6%. In a 2024 re-org, 60% of those laid off were over 40. 
• Microsoft is backing out of many of its data center commitments on a global level. Indonesia, the UK, and Australia locations have been halted, and in the U.S. plans for Illinois, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Ohio are paused. It’s unclear why, but this article suggests that Microsoft isn’t seeing enough demand to justify the new centers versus other reasons like rising construction costs. This article says, “Trump’s tariffs are likely to have a hugely negative impact on the US tech sector.” GREAT. 
• While the big three U.S. cloud platforms dominate, they don’t own it all. Europe has its own cloud providers, and they say they have two advantages: a friendlier interface and onboarding process, and less dubious privacy rules than their American counterparts. I feel like there’s a third advantage, but I just can’t think of anything that might drive the world away from U.S. cloud providers, can you? I mean, there’s not really anything going on, you know? 
• Voicing concern about anti-competitive tactics, two U.S. senators want to know more about Microsoft’s and Google’s partnerships with AI companies. 
• At a 50th anniversary celebration during which Microsoft unveiled new Copilot features around memory, some employees stood up to protest the cloud giant’s contract with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), interrupting the company CEO in front of thousands of people. Microsoft supplies IDF with AI-powered software used in selecting bomb targets in Gaza. (IDF also uses AWS to store surveillance information). A protesting employee was fired shortly after the event and another resigned.
• The Microsoft CTO says AI will generate 95% of code in the next five years, but that doesn’t mean a total replacement of human developers. Meanwhile, other outlets report that big tech firms ARE using AI to replace employees. Earlier in the year, Satya Nadella said AI agents would eventually replace all software-as-a-service and that in the future, people will be hired based on the agents they’ve created. I don’t like this game. 

Best Friends Forever 

• New to AWS Marketplace: Credential security platform Dashlane; Pipe17, an ecommerce software platform; Afiniti’s eXperienceAI, which provides customer experience technology. 
• New to Microsoft Azure Marketplace: Zenity, which secures AI agents; Happiest Minds’ generative AI investor solution; CTERA’s edge-to-cloud files services; CloudAtlas AI Guardian for ethical AI governance and security; SPIN Analytics’ RISKROBOT, which helps financial institutions model credit risk; ThetaRay’s Sonar, a SaaS transaction monitoring solution for fintechs and banks; accounts payable automation solution Dooap; and Apiboost’s Developer Portal.