8 Huge New AWS Partner Programs, Incentives And AI Tech For The Channel

From paying partners direct cash benefits for the first time to a new Partner Greenfield Program and AI capabilities inside Partner Central, here are eight new AWS partner incentives and benefits that every partner needs to know in 2026.

Amazon Web Services is launching a slew of new partner programs, channel incentives and AI capabilities for its army of over 130,000 partners.

From AWS paying partners direct cash benefits for delivering managed services and a new Partner Revenue Measurement, to a new Partner Greenfield Program and benefits inside its Think Big for Small Business program—AWS is revamping its channel incentive strategy in 2026.

“We just put out a whole bunch of new program updates and even new programs themselves, and also a lot of transformative technology capabilities that are really designed to accelerate partner profitability and ease of doing business at every stage in the journey,” Julia Chen, vice president of Partner Core for AWS, tells CRN.

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Additionally, AWS modernized its Partner Central Platform with new agentic AI capabilities as well as introduced AI Assessment funding for partners to accelerate AI pipeline development.

AWS is currently at a $142 billion annual run rate.

The Seattle-based company ranks No. 1 in terms of the global cloud services market share, owning approximately 28 percent share, followed by Microsoft at 21 percent share, then Google at 14 percent share.

Chen played a key role in the roll-out and development of AWS’ new channel investments and benefits.

“We’re investing more than ever, percentage-wise, into our partners because we know that our partners are so important to the customer value delivery,” Chen said. “I really want partners to lean in because there’s so much opportunity.”

In an interview with CRN, she sheds light on the most important new incentives, programs, and AWS’ overall channel strategy this year.

Here are the eight new programs and incentives inside the AWS Partner Network that every channel partner needs to know about.

Managed Services Cash Incentive

For the first time, AWS is paying partners direct cash benefits for delivering managed services.

“This is really important because managed services is delivering a business outcome,” said Chen.

“We had already launched one version of the managed service program, which is, upon submission of proof of management of workloads for a customer—there was a cash payout. We [just] announced that there was an additional incentive to be had on the growth of the customer accounts that were under management. So we’re very excited about this,” Chen said.

Chen said AWS data shows that MSP-supported customers demonstrate 3.4X higher cloud spend, 58 percent better retention rates, 3.4X larger engagements, 29 percent longer engagements, and 5.1X customer growth.

“There’s a spectrum of managed services. There are simpler managed services around support and around financial optimization, but there’s sophisticated managed services around DevSecOps and AIOps and actually doing agentic development on behalf of the customer. And all of that is fair game,” she said.

Revamped Partner Central With New Agentic AI Capabilities

AWS has launched a unified, revamped Partner Central hub powered by Amazon Bedrock AgentCore with AI agents that work 24/7.

“We’re modernizing our Partner Central platform with agentic AI capabilities that can cut admin time by 30 percent to 40 percent,” Chen said.

The platform automates opportunity management, surfaces real-time funding eligibility, and eliminates administrative friction that slows deals. It consolidates what were previously fragmented systems and separate portals for co-sell, AWS Marketplace, funding, and support into one platform.

“So we have these agents that are trained by AWS to recommend funding opportunities, identify deals that need more attention, flag deadlines and sales opportunities, sort through the documentation and automate a bunch of other time-consuming and somewhat tedious tasks. So the result of it is that you actually get our expertise on-demand. Your teams get the guidance they need, they get sales plays, customer pipeline insights, funding recommendations—all of that,” Chen said.

Chen said there is also a new automated coordination technology.

“This is what I’m really excited about because our partners tell us that they really value the co-sell with AWS,” she said. “So these agents can initiate workflows on your behalf. They can pre-populate available data so that your team can spend more time on decisions and selling as opposed to doing the searching and coordinating. We connect in with MCP servers and partners can connect in with their existing tools and systems, which is really important, so they can work in their own environments and they can reach our teams through their tools connected in.”

“You get the information that you need when you need it. This is going to help all with the co-sell,” Chen said.

AI Assessment Fund

AWS has introduced a new AI Assessment Fund to accelerate AI pipeline development for partners.

AWS is now providing performance-based funding for partners to deliver structured AI assessment engagements.

The program builds qualified pipeline, accelerates deal velocity, and shortens the path from AI interest to AI project. It gives partners resources to lead strategic AI conversations and get paid for doing it, Chen said.

“The AI assessment funding is meant to help partners with performance-based funding to deliver structured AI assessment engagements to build pipeline and then accelerate deals and turn these AI opportunities into revenue faster,” she said.

“We know that the beginning [of an AI assessment] is a little bit risky. So partners have to take a risk to prove the value of the solution to the customers. And we want to help out,” she said. “So that’s what that funding is exactly doing—to help build the pipeline of our partners and help fund those initial assessments.”

Partner Revenue Measurement

AWS’ new Partner Revenue Measurement precisely attributes revenue partners drive through both resell and influence.

Chen said this is the first time AWS can see and credit the full scope of value partners create, not just resell.

“This is a new form of measurement, and it’s meant to more precisely attribute and award the full scope of value that partners create,” Chen said.

The system enables more accurate measurement, automated payments, faster co-sell prioritization, and smarter program eligibility decisions.

“If a partner sells alongside an AWS seller, it’s hard to know sometimes how much work the partner did to influence that deal. Today we measure it mostly through opportunities. We can see the opportunities that the partner brings and the opportunities that the partners are involved in. And that’s really good. But the part that’s missing sometimes in that piece is tracing it all the way to revenue,” she said.

“So we now actually have some innovative technology around resource tagging and user tagging. They’re tags that the partners can actually put on the workloads. And this is important because then we can see how much revenue is associated with the work that the partner did,” Chen said. “So for partners that are adopting it, we can see the revenue and that’s really important. So even if the AWS rep books the deal, we can still see where the partner kicked off a workload because they’ll be tagged within the customer’s environment.”

Chen said by the end of 2026, all of AWS programs “will be reliant on this Partner Revenue Measurement. So we’re asking by summer that our partners use it and try it before July.”

New AWS Partner Greenfield Program

The new Partner Greenfield Program provides a simple, predictable blueprint that combines enablement, funding, and co-sell support to help partners prospect, activate, and grow new AWS customers.

“We value new customers coming onto AWS. And the purpose of the Partner Greenfield Program is to really create a comprehensive and simplified program for our partners to bring new customers onto AWS and get funding from us for it,” Chen said.

“So there’s bringing the customer on initially, but there’s also growing and retaining that customer. So there’s various incentives around that and tools as well,” she said.

The program provides incentives and support across new AWS customers around security, generative AI, migration and modernization.

Think Big For Small Business New Benefits

AWS is launching two new benefits for its Think Big for Small Business (TBSB) program, including go-to-market funding with tiered lead generation delivering qualified leads directly to partners.

“This is for our public sector partners. It’s really to help out the partners that serve these small businesses because small businesses are valued by not just the U.S. government, but many governments around the world,” Chen said.

“The go-to-market funding with tiered lead generation delivers qualified leads directly to our partners. And this is really important, right? It’s to proactively showcase where there’s small business customers that the government is working with,” she said.

Additionally, AWS is launching TBSB Communities, which are specialized cohorts organized by vertical, region, or industry—each operating with a standardized playbook designed to drive measurable opportunity creation.

“Communities is about best practice sharing. It’s us sharing with our partners ways that we know to help these small businesses in these particular interest areas,” Chen said.

AI Competency New Benefits Framework

Chen said AWS has invested over $115 million in the AWS AI Competency Partner Program since its launch in 2024, demonstrating commitment to accelerating successful customer AI adoption through specialized partners.

In 2026, AWS is updating the AI Competency with a performance-based Signature Benefits Framework that rewards partners based on real outcomes.

Every partner gets Core Benefits and key funding access, while top partner performers unlock premium go-to-market investment, higher funding allocations, and direct collaboration with the Generative AI Innovation Center.

“Part of having it is showcasing that AWS and partners are jointly investing in this capability for the customer. And then part of it is also to help our partners access some of the funding, the benefits and the programs that we have around AI,” Chen said.

“So we have performance-based signature benefits that reward the partners based on real outcomes, and we continue to add to it,” she said. “It also helps create a framework and a structure through which our partners can learn our capabilities in AI and access sometimes early on, or be pilot partners for some of the AI launches that we have.”

AWS currently has around 470 partners who have obtained the AI competency.

ISV Accelerate (ISVA)

AWS’ ISV Accelerate program (ISVA) has grown to more than 1,600 ISV partners worldwide.

AWS is expanding the program with new benefits for partners adopting AWS’ new Partner Revenue Management and are engaged in co-sell activities, with expanded benefits for partners that are deployed on AWS.

“We have augmented ISVA for partners who co-sell with AWS. Now they’re already seeing a 65 percent higher close rate, 54 percent larger deals and 51 percent higher revenue growth, which is amazing. But we’re augmenting it with higher MDF—$25,000 of MDF and a whole lot more benefits,” said Chen.

AWS will also provide regional ISVA co-sell workshops and grant early access to new tooling and automation, giving partners more resources to lead with AI-powered solutions and deliver business outcomes.