Dive Brief:
- AWS activated an agentic AI taskforce to help partners power through data blockages, source product expertise and speed up deal processes. The automation tools are available on the AWS Partner Central partner hub, according to a Monday post on the AWS Partner Network blog.
- The agents were trained by AWS to recommend funding opportunities, identify deals that need attention, flag deadlines and sales opportunities, sort through documentation and automate other tedious and time-consuming tasks, the company said.
- Channel-focused cybersecurity provider WatchGuard was able to complete processes that previously took days in a matter of minutes. “We’re also realizing greater returns on our APN investment, as the agent surfaces funding insights that were previously buried in extensive enablement documentation,” Danny Banks, WatchGuard technical director of business development said in the blog.
Dive Insight:
Agents are part of a broader AWS partner ecosystem evolution, spurred by AI adoption, cloud migrations and the growth of hyperscaler marketplaces as a channel resource.
The company connected its current Partner Central hub — first rolled out as a channel gateway in 2023 — to the AWS Management Console last year, bringing channel partner business closer to AWS Marketplace. In the lead-up to the annual AWS re:Invent conference in December, the hyperscaler rolled out three agentic AI-specific competencies with marketing funds attached.
More than 600 partners received or renewed specializations for the global AWS competency, managed service provider, service delivery and service ready during the first three months of the year, according to the company. The number of agentic AI-based listings on AWS Marketplace has already surpassed 2,700, Matt Yanchyshyn, VP of AWS Marketplace and partner services, told Channel Dive.
The agentic AI assistants deployed for partners use Model Context Protocol open source standards developed by Anthropic to integrate with a company’s existing tools and systems, AWS said in the Monday post. Partners can access the agents through AWS Partner Central or through their CRM via the MCP servers.
In a separate blog post by three AWS co-sell initiative managers, the company announced additional independent software vendor partner incentives, including up to $25,000 in marketing funds for ISVs that meet certain co-sell requirements.
The returns on co-selling for service providers can be considerable, according to research commissioned by AWS from Omdia, a Channel Dive sister company. For every dollar of AWS technology sold, partners generated $7 in service revenue, the analyst firm found. In addition, nearly two-thirds of partner organizations surveyed by Omdia used AWS Marketplace in their go-to-market strategy.
