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Mona Chadha: How Partners Turn AI Innovation into Real-World Outcomes
At AWS re:Invent, the energy is palpable - more than 65,000 attendees, sprawling venues and nonstop announcements.
In the middle of that amazing energy, I had a fantastic conversation with Mona Chadha, a 13-year AWS veteran and Director of Worldwide Infrastructure ISV Partners. Mona’s perspective sits at the intersection of Marketplace, ISVs, AI innovation and co-sell execution.
This conversation unpacked what’s new, what’s changing and what’s working for partners building and selling with AWS.
AI Maturity and a New Stage of Customer Readiness
Mona made a simple but powerful observation about this year’s re:Invent.
“This re:Invent is the perfect point where we have all the technical capabilities with Marketplace. We have the AI, AWS AI services, the Marketplace services, AI competencies to take AI to another level where you can now deliver value, deliver an ROI.”
From her vantage point, all the building blocks - Bedrock, Agent Core, Trainium, Inferentia, Marketplace, APN competencies - are converging. Partners and customers now have the foundation not just for experimentation but for production-grade AI.
This, she emphasized, is the shift from pilots to return on investment.
“Those pilots have to manifest in an ROI and the only way you get that ROI is if you get that scale in production.”
The DNA of High-Performing Co-Sell Partners
Working across ISVs like Databricks, Snowflake, MongoDB, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Okta and others, Mona sees clear patterns among the companies that succeed most with AWS.
The first is early and deep integration.
“They’re the first ones to actually come up with - here’s how we should be integrating with Bedrock Agent Core. Partners who are really forward-thinking and get into that AI mindset early on.”
The second is tight alignment with AWS - technically, strategically and commercially.
“They embed AWS into how they sell and how they market. They understand their end customer base and they build their messaging around those integrations.”
And the third is something simple but often overlooked - sharing information.
“Oftentimes you might be in a co-sell engagement and you’re not sharing information. The best thing is when our partners work with us, we always have new tidbits to share with one another.”
In Mona’s view, the strongest partners also share something else - they themselves are great AWS customers. That gives them internal fluency, confidence in the platform and a natural ability to speak the AWS language.
Why Production Workloads Matter More Than Ever
Much has been said across the industry about pilots and proof-of-concepts in AI. Mona sharpened that point with data and perspective.
Customers are demanding real outcomes. That requires production, measurability, integration, security, regional scale and governance.
AWS’s investments - including European Sovereign Cloud and new regional expansions - directly support that shift.
“AI gives us predictability. You can actually measure it now. You can measure what that ROI is.”
Marketplace Innovation - Bundles and Express Private Offers
One of the exciting Marketplace announcements is the multi-product private offer.
“Now you can build out an actual solution versus individual components. For channel partners and SIs, this creates a new revenue stream.”
Solution bundles unlock entirely new ways for partners to sell:
* Pricing on time and delivery
* Pricing on outcomes
* Pre-packaged architectures
* Multi-ISV combinations
* Attach services and managed offerings
Paired with Express Private Offers, this creates speed and precision.
“Being able to proactively deliver a prescriptive solution with a price - it’s smarter ways of procuring and really helpful for the buyer.”
This evolution is not theoretical. It’s already reshaping how partners build and how buyers purchase.
It Takes a Village - and a New Kind of Collaboration
If there was a single recurring theme in Mona’s comments, it was orchestration.
Technical stakeholders. Product teams. Marketing. Sellers. Partner teams. AWS field. ISV field.
“It takes a village. It takes a bunch of different stakeholders to make it happen and move together.”
Great innovations don’t reach production without great execution. And great execution requires alignment up and down both organizations.
Why This re:Invent Felt Different
Mona sees this year’s re:Invent as an inflection point.
“This re:Invent is particularly exciting because it takes AI to another level where you can now deliver value, deliver an ROI.”
With decades of ISV experience and 13 years guiding the AWS ecosystem, she has a unique perspective on partner evolution:
* From products to solutions
* From cloud alignment to AI fluency
* From integrations to agentic workflows
* From POCs to scaled production deployments
And from selling software to delivering outcomes.
Final Thoughts
This was Mona’s thirteenth re:Invent - and perhaps the most dynamic one yet. For partners looking to accelerate their AI strategy, integrate deeply with AWS services, or build meaningful co-sell relationships, her guidance is direct and actionable.
Integrate early. Align messaging. Bring your whole company to the table. Build solutions, not parts. And above all, focus on the customer outcome.
🎙️ Inside Partnering is a podcast for ecosystem builders, alliance leaders, and the people shaping the future of partnerships.
Let’s build the future of partnering - together.
📌 If you found this post helpful, would you please consider restacking it and sharing it with your audience? This spreads the word and keeps me interviewing and sharing content that will help you grow your partnership business and career.
Thanks for reading Inside Partnering! This post is public so feel free to share it.
🎧 Want more conversations like this?
💌 Subscribe to get new episodes and behind-the-scenes insights: insidepartnering.substack.com
Check out all 90+ episodes at InsidePartnering.com
🔗 Follow Chip on LinkedIn for daily partnership content and guest clips
Know someone Chip should interview? Send a quick email.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidepartnering.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By Chip RodgersAt AWS re:Invent, the energy is palpable - more than 65,000 attendees, sprawling venues and nonstop announcements.
In the middle of that amazing energy, I had a fantastic conversation with Mona Chadha, a 13-year AWS veteran and Director of Worldwide Infrastructure ISV Partners. Mona’s perspective sits at the intersection of Marketplace, ISVs, AI innovation and co-sell execution.
This conversation unpacked what’s new, what’s changing and what’s working for partners building and selling with AWS.
AI Maturity and a New Stage of Customer Readiness
Mona made a simple but powerful observation about this year’s re:Invent.
“This re:Invent is the perfect point where we have all the technical capabilities with Marketplace. We have the AI, AWS AI services, the Marketplace services, AI competencies to take AI to another level where you can now deliver value, deliver an ROI.”
From her vantage point, all the building blocks - Bedrock, Agent Core, Trainium, Inferentia, Marketplace, APN competencies - are converging. Partners and customers now have the foundation not just for experimentation but for production-grade AI.
This, she emphasized, is the shift from pilots to return on investment.
“Those pilots have to manifest in an ROI and the only way you get that ROI is if you get that scale in production.”
The DNA of High-Performing Co-Sell Partners
Working across ISVs like Databricks, Snowflake, MongoDB, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Okta and others, Mona sees clear patterns among the companies that succeed most with AWS.
The first is early and deep integration.
“They’re the first ones to actually come up with - here’s how we should be integrating with Bedrock Agent Core. Partners who are really forward-thinking and get into that AI mindset early on.”
The second is tight alignment with AWS - technically, strategically and commercially.
“They embed AWS into how they sell and how they market. They understand their end customer base and they build their messaging around those integrations.”
And the third is something simple but often overlooked - sharing information.
“Oftentimes you might be in a co-sell engagement and you’re not sharing information. The best thing is when our partners work with us, we always have new tidbits to share with one another.”
In Mona’s view, the strongest partners also share something else - they themselves are great AWS customers. That gives them internal fluency, confidence in the platform and a natural ability to speak the AWS language.
Why Production Workloads Matter More Than Ever
Much has been said across the industry about pilots and proof-of-concepts in AI. Mona sharpened that point with data and perspective.
Customers are demanding real outcomes. That requires production, measurability, integration, security, regional scale and governance.
AWS’s investments - including European Sovereign Cloud and new regional expansions - directly support that shift.
“AI gives us predictability. You can actually measure it now. You can measure what that ROI is.”
Marketplace Innovation - Bundles and Express Private Offers
One of the exciting Marketplace announcements is the multi-product private offer.
“Now you can build out an actual solution versus individual components. For channel partners and SIs, this creates a new revenue stream.”
Solution bundles unlock entirely new ways for partners to sell:
* Pricing on time and delivery
* Pricing on outcomes
* Pre-packaged architectures
* Multi-ISV combinations
* Attach services and managed offerings
Paired with Express Private Offers, this creates speed and precision.
“Being able to proactively deliver a prescriptive solution with a price - it’s smarter ways of procuring and really helpful for the buyer.”
This evolution is not theoretical. It’s already reshaping how partners build and how buyers purchase.
It Takes a Village - and a New Kind of Collaboration
If there was a single recurring theme in Mona’s comments, it was orchestration.
Technical stakeholders. Product teams. Marketing. Sellers. Partner teams. AWS field. ISV field.
“It takes a village. It takes a bunch of different stakeholders to make it happen and move together.”
Great innovations don’t reach production without great execution. And great execution requires alignment up and down both organizations.
Why This re:Invent Felt Different
Mona sees this year’s re:Invent as an inflection point.
“This re:Invent is particularly exciting because it takes AI to another level where you can now deliver value, deliver an ROI.”
With decades of ISV experience and 13 years guiding the AWS ecosystem, she has a unique perspective on partner evolution:
* From products to solutions
* From cloud alignment to AI fluency
* From integrations to agentic workflows
* From POCs to scaled production deployments
And from selling software to delivering outcomes.
Final Thoughts
This was Mona’s thirteenth re:Invent - and perhaps the most dynamic one yet. For partners looking to accelerate their AI strategy, integrate deeply with AWS services, or build meaningful co-sell relationships, her guidance is direct and actionable.
Integrate early. Align messaging. Bring your whole company to the table. Build solutions, not parts. And above all, focus on the customer outcome.
🎙️ Inside Partnering is a podcast for ecosystem builders, alliance leaders, and the people shaping the future of partnerships.
Let’s build the future of partnering - together.
📌 If you found this post helpful, would you please consider restacking it and sharing it with your audience? This spreads the word and keeps me interviewing and sharing content that will help you grow your partnership business and career.
Thanks for reading Inside Partnering! This post is public so feel free to share it.
🎧 Want more conversations like this?
💌 Subscribe to get new episodes and behind-the-scenes insights: insidepartnering.substack.com
Check out all 90+ episodes at InsidePartnering.com
🔗 Follow Chip on LinkedIn for daily partnership content and guest clips
Know someone Chip should interview? Send a quick email.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insidepartnering.substack.com/subscribe