New Agentic AI Categories for AWS AI Competency Partners

By Chris Dally, WW Data & AI Partner Specialization Lead – AWS
By Victor Rojo, WW Data & AI Principal Partner Solution Architect – AWS
By Chris Butler, Tech Business Developer – AWS

Organizations today are moving beyond basic AI experimentation toward autonomous systems that can work independently and drive real business value. Data from an IDC report indicates that 23% of organizations expect to achieve full deployment of agentic AI technology in the next 12 months, with 65% of organizations expecting full deployment by 2027—highlighting the significant growth potential of this technology.

To address this growing demand, we’re excited to announce three new categories for AWS Partners in the AWS AI Competency (previously AWS Generative AI Competency): Agentic AI Applications, Agentic AI Tools, and Agentic AI Consulting Services. These categories recognize Software and Services Partners with deep expertise in developing and implementing enterprise-grade AI solutions that understand context, reason over goals, and act autonomously with minimal human intervention.

This expansion aligns with growing market momentum as organizations establishing agentic AI capabilities now position themselves to lead when autonomous systems become standard business practice.

“Our data shows that customers working with AI Competency Partners are implementing production solutions 25% faster—a clear signal that validated expertise accelerates transformation,” said Ruba Borno, VP Global Specialists and Partners at AWS. “This expansion to include Agentic AI categories reinforces our commitment to help customers move from experimentation to production-grade autonomous systems that can perceive, reason, and act independently. This isn’t just about technology validation; it’s about connecting customers with Partners who have proven they can deliver responsible, scalable AI solutions that drive measurable business value.”

Since its launch in 2024, we have invested over $115 million in the AWS AI Competency, demonstrating our commitment to accelerating successful customer AI adoption through Specialization Partners. These new categories reflect the rapid market advancement, helping customers find Partners who can move them from experimentation to production-ready autonomous systems:

• Agentic AI Applications: Develop autonomous AI solutions that perceive environments, reason over complex goals, and execute purposeful actions with minimal human intervention. These applications orchestrate sophisticated workflows, maintain extended contextual awareness, and collaborate across multiple platforms while ensuring compliance with enterprise governance requirements.
• Agentic AI Tools: Create platforms, frameworks, and development tools enabling organizations to build, deploy, and manage agentic AI systems efficiently. Tools range from low-code solutions that accelerate development to sophisticated custom implementations supporting diverse regulatory environments and enterprise requirements.
• Agentic AI Consulting Services: Provide strategic guidance, implementation expertise, and ongoing support for agentic AI initiatives, helping organizations navigate deployment complexity while ensuring business alignment, governance requirements, and sustainable competitive advantages.

AWS AI Competency Partners implement production-grade autonomous AI systems—from low-code solutions using Amazon Quick Suite to custom implementations with Strands Agents and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.

These Partners also lead the way in responsible AI development, implementing frameworks that address fairness, privacy, and security while ensuring robust governance and continuous monitoring that aligns with organizational objectives.

New benefits for AI Competency Partners

We’re increasing our investment in AI Partners’ success through two key initiatives:

• Additional Marketing Development Funds – In 2026, we’re offering an additional $25K in Marketing Development Funds (MDF) for achieving validation in any of the Agentic categories—in addition to the $50K in MDF that Partners receive for the AI Specialization.
• Automated application process – To accelerate your path to the AI Specialization, we launched an agentic review process that provides real-time guidance and automated validation, cutting the application processing time by up to 70%.

Launch Partners

The AWS AI Competency represents the highest level of validation for Partners working with autonomous AI systems. Partners undergo rigorous technical assessment and must demonstrate successful customer implementations that align with AWS’ commitment to responsible AI development.

Launch Partners are already deploying AI agents that transcend simple task completion, orchestrating complex workflows, maintaining extended contextual awareness, and collaborating across multiple tools and platforms.

With 60 launch Partners, this marks our largest AWS Specialization launch to date. Explore the Agentic AI Partner solutions recommended by AWS:

Customers: Work with an AWS AI Competency Partner

AWS AI Competency Partners help you implement production-ready autonomous AI solutions while maintaining the highest standards of security, reliability, and operational excellence.

Discover solutions and connect with validated AWS AI Competency Partners or explore a catalogue of Agentic solutions listed in AWS Marketplace.

Partners: Become an AWS AI Competency Partner

AWS Partners looking to get their agentic AI solutions validated through the AWS Specialization Program must be validated or differentiated members of the Services or Software Path prior to applying.

Ready to apply? Review the Program Guide and access the application in AWS Partner Central (login required), now featuring automated application review.