519: Overcoming The Perfect Storm: Moving Beyond Basic Automation To Realize AI’s Full Potential, with Amazon Web Services
Kris Orlowski, a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon Web Services, has over 20 years of tech marketing experience with companies like Amazon and Microsoft. His role at AWS focuses on understanding the needs of supply chain practitioners to drive innovation. Drawing from a recent AWS survey, Kris discusses the "double barrier" to AI adoption: a limited understanding of its capabilities and a lack of trust. He explains the "trust paradox," where organizations want AI that is both autonomous and controllable, and advises that building AI readiness by solving data integration issues and starting with lower-risk applications is key to success.
Today I’m joined by Amazon Web Services, an industry mega-brand that provides a reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world.
Amazon Web Services is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers, including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies, use AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster.
Today, Kris Orlowski, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon Web Services, joins me to talk all about decision-making and AI readiness. Kris and I will be diving into a recent AWS survey and what the findings reveal about the risks and opportunities for organizations right now. We’ll be exploring why trust is at the heart of AI adoption. And, we’ll be shining a light on the perfect storm that prevents organizations from moving beyond basic automation to realize AI’s full potential.
Guest bio:
Kris Orlowski is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Applied AI Solutions at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he drives go-to-market strategy for emerging AI technologies including AWS Supply Chain. With over 20 years of tech marketing experience working with companies like Amazon, AWS, and Microsoft, Kris specializes in customer research, product positioning, and go-to-market strategy for emerging enterprise technologies.
An introduction to Kris, his background, and his role at Amazon Web Services.
An overview of AWS – who they are, what they do, and how they help their customers.
An overview of Amazon Web Service’s recent industry survey, who they spoke to, and what they were trying to understand.
The challenges businesses are currently facing when it comes to data and decision-making.
From engaging in less strategic work to the creation of a risk aversion culture, the business impact of slow and inaccurate decision-making.
The surprising results revealed by the AWS survey around how supply chain practitioners envision AI as part of their operations, and what the three step ‘execute, adapt, advise’ approach could mean for businesses.
The ‘double barrier phenomenon’ organizations see when trying to implement AI, and what those barriers to both adoption and utilization look like.
What businesses are looking for to help them build trust in new technology and AI-powered decision-making.
How vendors and developers should be thinking about partnership, trust and building the type of AI that businesses are actually looking for.
The big opportunities for organizations that are able to make real strides in their decision-making, and how listeners can access the report.
The survey results that surprised Kris most, and what they might mean for businesses and AI adoption.
The practical next steps businesses can take to ensure their AI journeys are a success in 2026.
Resources & Links Mentioned
- Head over to Amazon Web Service’s website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with AWS and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or X (Twitter), or you can connect with Kris on LinkedIn.
- If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more from AWS, check out 489: Time To Swap Your Axe For A Chainsaw: The Power of Agentic AI.
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