Public cloud was a critical proving ground for generative AI, as private-sector businesses leveraged readymade infrastructure to pilot use cases. Now, an emerging class of agentic AI tools is shifting industry focus to hyperscaler marketplaces, where independent software providers, service providers, resellers and consultants stress test various deployment and monetization strategies.
“We have over 2,700 listings in the agent category,” Matt Yanchyshyn, VP of AWS Marketplace and partner services, told Channel Dive. “Some of those agents are complementary to existing SaaS applications. There are also SaaS solutions that incorporate agentic capabilities natively, where you don't need to attach an agent.”
Agents are beginning to reshape enterprise IT strategies and the cloud marketplaces where AI tools are sold, according to the Futurum Group.
More than three-quarters of CIOs have prioritized AI and machine learning implementation, with nearly 2 in 5 eying process automation capabilities, the analyst firm said in a January report. Concurrently, hyperscaler marketplaces are evolving to replace human-centric procurements with automated processes in which “agents negotiate, transact, and orchestrate complex workflows,” according to the report.
The expanding agent ecosystem is in early stages, as evidenced by a conspicuous lack of billing standardization among vendors.
“Most partners are still figuring out how to meter and charge for this stuff,” he said. “A lot of vendors are embedding agentic capabilities into existing SaaS applications, adding a new SKU and using that as a way to justify an uplift in renewal costs.”
AWS has also seen usage-based micropayments and outcome-based structures as software vendors navigate investor uncertainty around the effect of AI automation and coding tools on the SaaS market.
“We're working hard with our partners to help them define this space, but they are figuring out ways to charge, based on the total contract value,” said Yanchyshyn. “It's not that they aren't doing value-based pricing; it's just that how they're doing that is all over the map right now.”
A healthy slice of a growing pie
AWS isn’t the only hyperscaler driving business through its marketplace but it is the largest, attracting more than a quarter of $419 billion in global cloud spending last year, according to a Synergy Research Group analysis.
In the race to capture AI revenues, the hyperscaler has pulled several levers to motivate its channel partners, increasing incentives while simplifying benefits in November for vendors in the AWS Solution Provider Program and AWS Distribution Program and providing additional marketing resources for partners with agentic solutions the following month.
The company gave partners another pathway to reaping the rewards of an expanding cloud services market last year by formalizing cross-vendor, multi-product solution-based offerings. The arrangement makes it easier for independent software vendors, global systems integrators and IT service providers to bring products to market via AWS.
“We're increasingly talking about use cases that incorporate SaaS and multiple components, like CRM, ERP and contact center,” Yanchyshyn said. “A reseller channel partner, for example, may provide managed services or resale capabilities with a software solution packaged into a single industry-based solution.”
The multi-product packages are largely partner led, Yanchyshyn said, although the Amazon Connect contact center unit has contributed to the push for integrated solutions.
The initiatives are paying off. Hyperscaler marketplace-based enterprise software sales are expected to more than quadruple in the next five years, reaching $163 billion in 2023, according to research firm Omdia, a Channel Dive sister company. By that time, Omdia estimates that 60% of marketplace sales will flow through the channel.
“Agentic AI will be one of the fastest-growing categories through marketplaces in the next five years,” Omdia Chief Analyst Alastair Edwards said in the October report. “The hyperscalers are competing hard to win the race as a channel for agentic AI through their agent marketplaces, because this accounts for an ever-greater proportion of cloud consumption.”
While agents are the fastest growing AWS Marketplace category, business applications, including CRM and ERP software, aren’t far behind, Yanchyshyn said.
The cloud marketplace ecosystem is fast becoming the preferred route-to-market for business applications and productivity software, according to the Futurum Group. Revenue in the category is expected to grow at a more than 31% compound rate over the next several years, reaching $5.3 billion in 2029, the firm said in a February report.
“Customers who have their data on AWS want to buy their business applications through AWS Marketplace,” said Yanchyshyn. “We’re seeing the same trend with agents now, too.”
