Welcome to episode 332 of The Cloud Pod – where the forecast is always cloudy! It’s Thanksgiving week, which can only mean one thing: AWS Re:Invent predictions! In this special episode, Justin, Jonathan, Ryan, and Matt engage in the annual tradition of drafting their best guesses for what AWS will announce at the biggest cloud conference of the year. Justin is the reigning champion (probably because he actually reads the show notes), but with a reverse snake draft order determined by dice roll, anything could happen. Will Werner announce his retirement? Is Cognito finally getting a much-needed overhaul? And just how many times will “AI” be uttered on stage? Grab your turkey and let’s get predicting!

Titles we almost went with this week:

• 🎲 Roll For Initiative: The Re:Invent Prediction Draft
• 🏆 Justin’s Winning Streak: A Study in Actually Doing Your Homework
• 🔮 Serverless GPUs and Broken Dreams: Our Re:Invent Wishlist
• 🎯 Shooting in the Dark: AWS Predictions Edition
• 😅 We’re Never Good at This, But Here We Go Again
• 🎰 Vegas Odds: What Happens at Re:Invent, Gets Predicted Wrong

AWS Re:Invent Predictions 2025

The annual prediction draft is here! Draft order was determined by dice roll: Jonathan first, followed by Ryan, Justin, and Matt in last position. As always, it’s a reverse order format, with points awarded for each correct prediction announced during the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday keynotes.

Jonathan’s Predictions

1. Serverless GPU Support – An extension to Lambda or a different service that provides on-demand serverless GPU/inference capability. Likely with requirements for pre-warmed provisioned instances.
2. Agentic Platform for Continuous AI Agents – A service that allows agents to run continuously with goals or instructions, performing actions periodically or on-demand in the real world. Think: running agents on a schedule that can check conditions and take automated actions.
3. Werner Vogels Retirement Announcement – Werner will announce that this is his last Re:Invent keynote and that he is retiring.

Ryan’s Predictions

1. New Trainium 3 Chips, Inferentia, and Graviton Chips – New generation of AWS custom silicon across training, inference, and general compute.
2. Expanded Model Availability in Bedrock – AWS will significantly expand the number of models available in Bedrock, potentially via partnerships or integrations with additional providers.
3. Major Refresh to AWS Organizations – UI-based or functionality refresh providing better visibility into SCPs, OU mappings, and stack sets across organizations.

Justin’s Predictions

1. New Nova Model with Multi-modal Support – Launch of Nova Premier or Nova Sonic with multi-modal capabilities, bringing Amazon’s foundational model to the next level.
2. OpenAI Partnership Announcement – AWS and OpenAI will announce a strategic partnership, potentially bringing OpenAI models to Bedrock (likely announced on stage).
3. Advanced Agentic AI Capabilities for Security Hub – Enhanced features for Security Hub adding Agentic AI to help automate SOC team operations.

Matt’s Predictions

1. Model Router for Bedrock – A service to route LLM queries to different AI models, simplifying the process of testing and selecting models for different use cases.
2. Well-Architected Framework Expansion – New lenses or significant updates to the Well-Architected Framework beyond the existing Generative AI and Sustainability lenses.
3. End User Authentication That Doesn’t Suck – A new or significantly revamped end-user authentication service (essentially Cognito 2.0) that actually works well for client portals.

Tiebreaker: How Many Times Will “AI” or “Artificial Intelligence” Be Said On Stage?

If we end in a tie (or nobody gets any predictions correct, which is historically possible), we go to the tiebreaker!

Honorable Mentions

Ideas that didn’t make the cut but might just surprise us:

Jonathan:

• Mathematical proof/verification that text was generated by Amazon’s LLMs (watermarking for AI output)
• Marketplace for AI work – publish and monetize AI-based tools with Amazon handling billing
• New consumer device to accompany Nova models (smarter Alexa replacement with local inference)

Ryan:

• FinOps AI recommender for model usage and cost optimization
• Savings plans or committed use discounts for Bedrock use cases

Matt:

• Sustainability/green dashboard improvements
• AI-specific features for Aurora or DSQL

Justin:

• Big S3 vectors announcement and integration to Bedrock
• FinOps service for Kubernetes
• Amazon Q Developer with autonomous coding agents
• New GPU architecture combining training/inference/Graviton capabilities
• Amazon Bedrock model marketplace for revenue share on fine-tuned models

Quick Hits From the Episode

• 00:02 – Is it really Re:Invent already? The existential crisis begins.
• 01:44 – Jonathan reveals why Justin always wins: “Because you read the notes.”
• 02:54 – Matt hasn’t been to a Re:Invent session since Image Builder launched… eight years ago.
• 05:03 – Jonathan comes in hot with serverless GPU support prediction.
• 06:57 – The inference vs. training cost debate – where’s the real ROI?
• 09:30 – Matt’s picks get systematically destroyed by earlier drafters.
• 14:09 – The OpenAI partnership prediction causes draft chaos.
• 16:24 – Jonathan drops the Werner retirement bombshell.
• 19:12 – Justin’s Security Hub prediction: “Please automate the SOC teams.”
• 19:46 – Everyone hates Cognito. Matt’s prediction resonates with the universe.
• 21:47 – Tiebreaker time: Jonathan goes with 1 out of pure spite.
• 24:08 – Honorable mentions include mathematical AI verification and a marketplace for AI work.

Re:Invent Tips (From People Who Aren’t Going)

Since none of us are attending this year, here’s what we remember from the good old days:

• Chalk Talks remain highly respected and valuable for deep technical content
• Labs and hands-on sessions are worth your time more than keynotes you can watch online
• Networking on the expo floor and in hallways is where the real value happens
• Don’t try to see everything – focus on what matters to your work
• Stay hydrated – Vegas is dry and conferences are exhausting

Closing

And that is the week in the cloud! We’re taking Thanksgiving week off, so there won’t be an episode during Re:Invent. We’ll record late that week and have a dedicated Re:Invent recap episode the following week. If you’re heading to Las Vegas, have a great time and let us know how it goes!

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