Trailblazing women tech leaders took center stage at this year’s AWS re:Invent conference, showcasing groundbreaking advancements in generative AI, cloud-native platforms and automation that are transforming the business landscape.
From empowering developers to solving global challenges, their innovations are driving operational efficiency, accelerating growth and fostering a collaborative future in the cloud.
“There is never a time when lifting up and shining a light on the many women tech leaders who are doing amazing work is not one of my most favorite things, and I was thrilled to see that showcasing the success of women of the cloud was a clear theme at this year’s AWS re:Invent,” said Shelly Kramer, principal analyst at theCUBE Research. “The data is clear: Diverse, inclusive teams not only do better work, but they also deliver better results for clients. I’m so honored to be a part of this initiative.”
This article is part of SiliconANGLE Media’s spotlight on women of the cloud. Be sure to catch up on theCUBE’s analyst-led coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure below.)
Women in tech drive AI and automation for business modernization and innovation
Advances in AI and automation are reshaping how businesses operate, fostering innovation, driving efficiency and advancing digital operations. From incident management solutions to scalable AI initiatives and cutting-edge tools, women tech leaders are setting new standards in the cloud.
PagerDuty Inc., a company dedicated to streamlining incident management, leverages AI-driven solutions to address challenges in increasingly complex digital ecosystems. The company’s Operations Cloud and its generative AI assistant, PagerDuty Advance, demonstrate how the company embeds AI into workflows, enabling real-time incident resolution and improved productivity, according to Jennifer Tejada, chief executive officer of PagerDuty.
AWS’ Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec talks with theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante about AI-driven cloud innovation.
“We announced this summer PagerDuty Advance, which is our generative AI assistant,” she told theCUBE. “It’s starting to take some of the toil out of the hands of our developers by being able to tell you what customers are impacted, what’s changed in the complexity of many deployments that happen over short periods of time. All those very quick, but high-fidelity answers are now available really easily and deeply integrated into chat experiences that our customers love.”
For JPMorgan Chase & Co., scalable AI is a cornerstone of its continuous modernization efforts. The financial giant employs advanced AI techniques to enhance risk management, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, according to Lori Beer, global chief information officer at JPMorgan. Generative AI applications improve anomaly detection and pattern analysis, ensuring the bank’s resilience in a complex international market.
“Given the nature of our business, we run a globally, systemically important bank,” Beer said during an interview with theCUBE. “We have to manage liquidity. The amount of risk calculations and things we run on a regular basis consume lots of data. We have examples right now where we’re using anomaly detection and networking to help proactively identify a switch that may potentially fail. You can put gen AI on top of that and start asking questions about the dynamics and the patterns of what’s happening in your data.”
AWS extends this progress through tools such as Amazon Q Developer, which simplifies legacy migrations, and S3 Tables, which optimize data management, according to Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, vice president of technology at AWS. These technologies streamline legacy migrations, reducing timelines and unlocking critical efficiencies. For example, Toyota Motor in North America leveraged Q Developer to modernize 40-year-old mainframe applications, significantly cutting timelines and improving operational workflows.
“They were told it would take years and billions of dollars,” Tomsen Bukovec told theCUBE. “What we’ve done with Q is we’ve brought AI to the table; we’ve brought AI to the team. They said that just the definition of those COBOL modules, the documentation and the migration plan for them would’ve taken months. Now it’s down to days.”
Women tech leaders pioneer AI breakthroughs in life sciences and compliance
From enhancing data privacy and regulatory compliance to improving scalability, women tech leaders in the life sciences and healthcare sectors are solving critical challenges through collaborative, AI-powered solutions.
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., in partnership with Persistent Systems Ltd., leverages AWS’ infrastructure, Amazon Q and generative AI to tackle the life sciences industry’s unique demands. The collaboration focuses on designing solutions that balance compliance, data privacy and operational efficiency, according to Jasmina Desai, associate director of software architecture and development at Bio-Rad Laboratories.
“The life sciences industry is governed by strict regulations, including [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and General Data Protection Regulation], making data privacy and compliance absolutely critical,” Desai said in an interview with theCUBE. “At the onset of our project, the top priority was to build a secure, scalable environment capable of managing sensitive customer data without sacrificing performance.”
AWS served as the foundation of Bio-Rad’s cloud infrastructure, while Persistent plays a key role in tailoring AWS solutions to meet specific life sciences requirements. The collaboration began at the design phase, ensuring scalable, secure solutions with robust data integrity, according to Desai.
“Whether it is for protecting our customers for data privacy who trust us for their data, using HIPAA-eligible services for compliance or ensuring data integrity, this partnership with AWS and Persistent has truly been impactful,” she said.
Women in tech advance AI globally through regional expertise and innovation
AI adoption is accelerating worldwide, but regional challenges require region-specific strategies. Women tech leaders spearhead initiatives to overcome these barriers, fostering innovation through AI-driven approaches tailored to local needs that reflect cultural, regulatory and technological diversity.
AWS’ Tanuja Randery talks with theCUBE about the culture of AI adoption in Europe.
Amazon Web Services Inc. introduced the European Sovereign Cloud in Europe, an independent cloud solution designed to address unique regional needs, according to Tanuja Randery, managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa at AWS. The company drives innovation and supports compliance by enabling AI adoption in local languages and helping businesses navigate complex regulations. The Sovereign Cloud also tackles key barriers, such as a lack of digital skills and slower adoption rates among small-to-medium companies compared to enterprises.
“Europe is sitting on the brink of a very unprecedented opportunity,” Randery told theCUBE during an interview. “It’s a phenomenal hub for AI and innovation. We did some research recently that shows that we could unlock approximately 600 billion euros of economic value just through the application of AI technology. When you couple that with the total investment in cloud in digital technologies, that’s almost a 3.2 trillion-euro opportunity for that region.”
AWS has also worked with 18 startups across EMEA to address challenges ranging from antibiotic-resistant bacteria to airline efficiency. These projects demonstrate how localized innovation, supported by AI and the cloud, changes the game for industries. By integrating large language models in native languages, AWS democratizes AI, expanding accessibility across the region, Randery explained.
“One of the areas we [Europe] are particularly unique … is language and culture,” she said. “We’ve been working with large language models in local languages. A great example is the Slovak model that we’ve been working on … I think taking the models [and] bring[ing] them into local language will also help us get more democratization of this technology.”
Women tech leaders empower developers through cloud-native AI solutions
Advancements in cloud-native platforms enable developers to build and deploy applications with greater creativity and efficiency. Women tech leaders champion tools that streamline workflows, elevate user experiences and integrate AI-driven capabilities, reshaping development practices.
Heroku, a Salesforce Inc. platform, has undergone a complete overhaul to deliver a fully cloud-native experience, according to Betty Junod, Heroku’s chief marketing officer at Salesforce. By integrating Kubernetes and OpenTelemetry, the platform now conforms to modern cloud standards. It maintains its signature simplicity, offering enhanced performance through features such as Graviton and managed inferencing powered by Bedrock, all delivered with the same straightforward user experience.
“We replatformed, but the best thing is the user experience is exactly that simple, clean experience that people are used to,” Junod told theCUBE. “But they’re getting things like Graviton performance, they’re getting [Elastic Kubernetes Service], [Engineering Change Request], Global Accelerator. They’re getting managed inference powered by Bedrock … the same experience they love with just more horsepower and more tools around it.”
Salesforce’s Betty Junod talks with theCUBE about Heroku’s new offerings.
Central to Heroku’s modernization is Agentforce, an AI-driven tool designed to make app development accessible to non-technical users. By simplifying complex processes and enabling automation through natural language capabilities, Agentforce enables businesses to innovate and streamline operations, according to Junod.
“When you look at the knowledge workers out there, we’re talking about a billion people,” she said. “How do you empower non-technical people to … automate those business processes? I think this is where Salesforce, with the entire portfolio that we have, is magic for businesses because we have this great no-code or low-code like [graphic user interface]-based workflow that anyone can use.”
Heroku’s modernization efforts also include open-sourcing its Twelve Factor project principles, a framework for running and deploying applications, according to Gail Frederick, Heroku’s chief technology officer at Salesforce. The platform’s next steps include making these tools globally accessible and expanding its AI capabilities.
“Heroku’s platform is older than any cloud standard,” Frederick said during an interview with theCUBE. “What we have been doing is a total overhaul in uplift to be conformant with cloud-native standards. So, we have a Kubernetes conformant control plane. Our customers are going to see the massive scale that they’re used to with Heroku, with increased performance.”
Check out SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s full coverage of AWS re:Invent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE was a paid media partner for AWS re:Invent 2024. Neither Amazon Web Services, Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
Image: SiliconANGLE/DALL-E
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