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Vince Menzione - Technology Industry Sales and Partner Executive
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312 – AWS Partners Unlock the Proven Path From AI Pilots to Profit
Don’t get left behind in the AI revolution. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this powerful episode, Vince Menzione sits down with Rebecca Jones of Bridge Partners and Mark Yaphe, Head of Consulting Partners for AWS, to uncover how AI is fundamentally rewiring the partner ecosystem. They explore the urgent shift from 90% stalled AI pilots to a new era of rapid execution, warning against the trap of “shiny object” syndrome. By unpacking the necessity of a “builder mindset” and a product-focused approach, this discussion reveals exactly what top-performing companies are doing to collapse six-month development cycles into four weeks and secure their place in the 2026 market landscape. Key Takeaways The transition from on-prem to cloud and marketplace is now entirely focused on AI transformation. Top companies approach AI with a product mindset rather than running scattershot pilots. Empowering frontline teams with a “builder mindset” can collapse solution cycles from six months to four weeks. Partners must avoid the $260 billion AI “FOMO” trap by specializing in specific industries and workflows rather than trying to do everything. Evaluating the “highest and best use” of AI models like Claude is essential for managing token economics and ROI. Thriving through AI disruption requires cultivating a strong growth mindset and prioritizing human connection and critical thinking. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AI transformation, AWS partner ecosystem, hyperscaler alignment, builder mindset, product mindset implementation, Bridge Partners insights, GenAI solution cycles, AI token economics, Claude model utilization, GSI strategy, 2026 ecosystem shift, AI ROI measurement, agentic tools, workflow specialization. Transcript Rebecca Jones and Mark Yaphe AUDIO EPISODE [00:00:00] Rebecca Jones: You can either, um, think about being disrupted or being a disruptor. [00:00:07] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us the way hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel. And what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:18] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host. [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: technology, partnerships and outcomes, the voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. [00:00:45] Vince Menzione: Let’s start. We have another incredible session today, right? So I get to invite another friend of, of ultimate partner who’s been around for a while and, uh, it’s just absolutely amazing. Rebecca has been in the studio, she’s been at, how many of events have you been with? Fourth, fourth one, and I’m gonna have you introduce Mark as well. [00:01:10] Vince Menzione: So come on, on stage. Rebecca. Rebecca Jones to many of you know. [00:01:14] Rebecca Jones: Thank you, sir. [00:01:15] Vince Menzione: Good to see you. Good to see you. And Mark, great, great to have you. I want to have you, Richard, we’ll have you, Rebecca’s gonna introduce you and then we want you to introduce yourself as well, sir. [00:01:23] Rebecca Jones: Wonderful. Well, [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: and another AWS exec. [00:01:26] Vince Menzione: I love this. Like, I know. Yeah, we’re finishing out the day Strong. [00:01:28] Rebecca Jones: Well, Vince, I have to say, you’ve got me, um, the last time we got together, it was the last session before happy hour. So I guess we’re closing. [00:01:36] Vince Menzione: Well, you know, we’re gonna close us [00:01:38] Rebecca Jones: out [00:01:38] Vince Menzione: really nicely. Know we, yeah. We’re serving Bloody Mary’s, by the way, while you’re guys are up here. [00:01:42] Vince Menzione: No. Good. [00:01:42] Rebecca Jones: So, um, we’re so excited to have Mark. Thank you, mark, for joining us here. Um, head of consulting partners for AWS and, uh. We’re gonna close this down, aren’t we? I love [00:01:54] Vince Menzione: it. I love it. Yes. I’m looking forward to it. [00:01:56] Rebecca Jones: Okay. [00:01:56] Vince Menzione: So Mark’s well, welcome. Good to have you. [00:01:58] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Do you wanna take a seat? [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: Uh, yeah, [00:02:00] Rebecca Jones: please do. [00:02:01] Rebecca Jones: All right. [00:02:01] Vince Menzione: Please do. I’m morphing the pillows up, by the way. [00:02:05] Rebecca Jones: Oh, are you [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: by the way, for those of who don’t know, these got shipped from my house because we got Oh, I was wondering. It’s hard to find, but yeah. Yeah, they’re, we take them from event to event. It’s so funny to have them. But I wanna, well, thank you for both being here. [00:02:17] Rebecca Jones: Yes. [00:02:18] Vince Menzione: I think it’d probably be helpful for those who don’t know, bridge Of course. Maybe just spend a moment because I know you well. [00:02:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:02:23] Vince Menzione: And we know the organization well, those of us. Those of us. [00:02:26] Rebecca Jones: But for me, uh, so let me talk to you a little bit about Bridge Partners and my role, um, the company has been around for almost two decades. [00:02:34] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. And so when you think about the transformation that’s happened within the tech industry. And our primary focus is the tech industry. Uh, and within that we focus on enterprise companies and we help them with product go to market and how they scale that through partners. Yeah. Uh, so that’s given us a really interesting and, uh, vantage point around the transformations from on-prem to cloud, cloud to marketplace and now marketplace and the transformation with ai. [00:03:04] Vince Menzione: I feel like you’re the McKenzie of the, of the partner business. Like I, [00:03:07] Rebecca Jones: I like that. [00:03:08] Vince Menzione: Can we get that? [00:03:09] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:03:10] Vince Menzione: I’ll, I’ll, I’ll sign an agreement with you, but I really do, I feel like as we work together, bridge was always like the organization we bring in to help us. Solve the big issues. Yeah. Like that I think about your organization. [00:03:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And Mark, talk to me about Global Consulting services. Sure. So is it all GSIs? Is it, [00:03:24] Mark Yaphe: uh, so I head up, uh, global Consulting Partner Marketing. Okay. So I focus really on, on two key categories for the, the more sig larger, uh, GSIs. Uh, I’ve got a team that actually partners very closely with them. Nice. [00:03:36] Mark Yaphe: That helps them develop the right strategies, go to market approaches, nice to unlock the opportunity. And then for the full consulting community, I look at those mechanisms. Go to market approach is leveraging marketplace to help our whole consulting community become successful with AWS. [00:03:51] Vince Menzione: And we’ve got GSIs in the room here, which is kind of cool actually. [00:03:53] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Um, where do we wanna start? Let’s, let’s, [00:03:57] Rebecca Jones: well, yeah, we’ve got a good list of questions to go through. How’s everybody feeling? We’re we’re good? We’re awake. One more session, everyone. Alright. Okay. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: So Rebecca, uh, across the organizations you work with. What are you seeing from the highest ’cause? I, I say you’re like the McKinsey. [00:04:16] Vince Menzione: What are you seeing from the highest performing companies? Yeah, that they do differently. When it comes to turning your go-to market strategy into outcomes? [00:04:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Um, I will say the most important thing that we’re seeing from companies is they’re asking different questions, fundamentally different questions when it comes to ai. [00:04:34] Rebecca Jones: Interesting. [00:04:34] Vince Menzione: What do you mean by that? [00:04:35] Rebecca Jones: Well, we, we talked a lot this morning about there’s never been higher access, and I’ll say general adoption for tools and technology. There was a great stat this morning. Uh, I think Jay shared that, uh, from MIT. [00:04:50] Vince Menzione: We keep looking there as if he’s still [00:04:51] Rebecca Jones: sitting there. [00:04:51] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, I’m looking. Where was Jay? He, he was all over the place. Um, there was a great stat from MIT that there was, you know, if you looked at last year, 90% of pilots. Were stuck and they weren’t going anywhere. And now that’s dropped down to 70%. So there’s movement and transformation. And so when I think about that, and when I go back to the types of questions leaders are asking, um, that are really moving ahead, they’re looking at operating systems differently and they’re looking at, um. [00:05:25] Rebecca Jones: They’re asking the questions on where should I apply AI within those work streams, um, and within those operating systems, and the way in which they’re approaching that is with a product mindset. So that is fundamentally different than just the scattershot of let’s just do pilots everywhere. [00:05:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. You’ve talked about product, uh, mindset with me as well. [00:05:48] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:05:48] Vince Menzione: And I think we were gonna talk about builder mindset as
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