SAN FRANCISCO, June 30, 2026 — Amazon is creating a new AWS division employing forward-deployed engineers who embed with customers to accelerate agentic AI adoption.
AWS committed an initial $1 billion to the initiative, sending five to six engineer pods to customers for 45-day periods, said Francessca Vasquez, AWS VP of frontier AI engineering and services.
“We have a ton of demand for customers who are asking for our help to really drive agentic AI patterns in their workflows,” Vasquez said. Forward-deployed engineers embed alongside clients, navigate internal politics, and write production-grade code.
AWS planned “thousands” of employees in the new unit without specific headcount, hiring externally and moving internal staff. Amazon has cut over 30,000 corporate jobs since October amid AI expansion.
Announcement made at a two-day Washington customer event with additional government cloud offerings expected. Named customers include NFL, NBA, Allen Institute, Cox Automotive, Ricoh, and Southwest Airlines.
Success measured by customer value delivered in faster durations than traditional project-based activity.