Episode 8
Next-Day Shipping Starts with Next-Level Strategy
With Ben Schreiner
What can a four-million-square-foot fulfillment center teach us about the future of AI?
In this episode of REWIRED, Akanksha Bilani sits down with Ben Schreiner, Head of AI & Modern Data Strategy Business Development at AWS, to explore how data, cloud power, and next-generation silicon are quietly transforming the way the world runs. From the awe of a four-million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center to the intelligence predicting what you’ll need before you even click “buy,” Ben shows how AI is reshaping the backbone of modern business, and why bringing more people into this conversation is so important as the landscape evolves.
Together, they dig into a future where leaders won’t just manage people, but intelligent agents working alongside them; a shift that unlocks new forms of creativity, partnership, and possibility. Because when innovation scales with vision and purpose, the future doesn’t just arrive faster, it becomes something we can all help shape.
REWIRED Ep 8 Podcast Transcript
Akanksha Bilani (Host):
Welcome to Rewired! A podcast that shares the coolest stories of innovation and behind the scenes breakthroughs from Intel, AWS, and our favorite partners.
I'm your host, Akanksha Bilani. I run the go-to market team for Team Amazon at Intel, helping bridge the path with AWS, our partners, and customers. Today, I have the privilege of speaking to Ben Schreiner, the head of AI and Modern Data Strategy Business Development at AWS.
Ben, thank you so much for being here.
Ben Schreiner:
Oh, so happy to be here with you.
Akanksha Bilani:
Thank you. Ben, can you tell us a little bit about your role within AWS and what are the cool things that you're working on today that get you excited?
Ben Schreiner:
Sure. Happy to. I have a great team of principal advisors that go around and talk to executive teams at our customers and our partners about all the things that this transformational technology AI can do to change the competitive landscape in just about every industry. We've done just over 200 fulfillment center tours this year with our customers and often a partner, included, where we can. And really, what that is, is a behind-the-scenes tour of one of our fulfillment centers, or FCs for short, which is four million square feet of, ‘Oh my gosh,’ eye-popping, you can't believe what you're seeing. And we take the entire executive team on a tour where they see robots, they see our workers, they see conveyor belts, and basically a behind-the-scenes tour of how the box with a smile gets to your house.
If you've ever purchased anything from our small website, Amazon.com, you may have realized that there's a little counter that says if you order in the next two hours, you'll get it tomorrow. And it's a lot that goes into that. And it requires a modern data strategy. And it's a pretty amazing thing to see firsthand. And a lot of executive teams are getting inspired by what's possible when you do things at a very high level, at very high volume.
And then it leads to conversations about how can we partner to help you, Mr. or Mrs. Customer, get ready to compete in this new AI era.
Akanksha Bilani:
That's incredible. I think this entire end-to-end story that you're telling them is super impactful, Ben. And congratulations to you and your team, to having that vision to bring technology to life for our customers today.
Ben Schreiner:
Well, and I know, you know this, Akanksha, because Intel believes this too, speed matters, right? Whether it's the performance of the chips and the silicon, the databases that it powers to the cloud, and it's availability. This is where AI really brings an opportunity. How we deliver and how we predict what products need to be where. Because obviously, it's got to be as close to your house as we possibly can make it to be able to get it to you as fast as possible.
And all of that is driven by a massive amount of data, all being analyzed for patterns and optimization throughout the entire logistics process. All of it's driven by, advanced data and AI capabilities, all powered by AWS.
Akanksha Bilani:
Incredible. Let that be known audience look at what goes behind the scenes, or when you order a package all the way to when you need to order that package again. AWS and Amazon with the power of Intel really help you with that journey. So to that effect, Ben, since we've been talking about this, tell us one of your favorite customer stories.
Ben Schreiner:
We just did a tour for 30 different, national association corporate directors who are board members, are curious about AI and data and security, obviously as a governing board. But in reality, they all see different things. Right? So it's the same tour where we're saying the same things, but the head of H.R is seeing the kiosks that we have for the FC folks,and how we prioritize safety. The CFO just sees money flying around, I think, or they see all this
inventory and go, “Oh my gosh, like, how do you manage all of this?” And, you know, can you imagine the audits that would have to happen? But every different person sees a different angle of it all coming together.
We believe in the power of the data. And if you had all the data and intelligence on top of it, then the decision makers, the people in the room, those leaders would be more empowered, more knowledgeable about all the ways that they could improve the company's performance. And so we want to provoke how they see AI changing their industry in their business?
And then, most importantly, what can we start to do together with the help of our partners, to accelerate their creation of a competitive advantage in their industry that allows them to sustain the growth that their board and their investors are expecting them to deliver. When you open it up to all the things that AI could make possible, if you have the data and you have the power of the cloud and of high performing silicon to be able to power everything, you really can unlock kind of the creativity and the what's possible.
Akanksha Bilani:
I love it, and I think it really helps us walk the talk, between, you know, AWS, Amazon and or Intel, we're all going through the same journey as our customers and our partners. How do you feel we could engage more customers and partners and leaders to have these conversations with us? So we could obviously share knowledge, but also dissipate knowledge in the way that, our industry can take benefit of it.
Ben Schreiner:
I think we need to inspire. I think you have this platform, which is great, and the more we can inspire people to see that, yes, we're all in this, but we're not in this alone. Right? And that's really the value of the partnership and working together with you and Intel, and other partners, I think accelerates what's possible.
And so that's really what I like about the partnership that we have is it truly is about, you know, trying to break new ground with these customers so that they can make a difference in their own business and in their own growth trajectory. And Intel's been great about helping really step on that accelerator and look for ways to just go faster. We want to help a company, set themselves up for success for the years to come.
Akanksha Bilani:
Absolutely, I love it. Do you feel, Ben, there are maybe 1 or 2 specific industries that are kind of leading the charge on curiosity for, you know, the partnership towards these conversations? Or do you feel this is across?
Ben Schreiner:
I will say, in my experience, there's two industries in particular that have a little bit of an advantage. And I think they would agree. And that's the financial services and healthcare. Because they have laws that they have to comply with, their data is usually in better shape than maybe some of the other industries that didn't have laws that they had to comply with.
And so, here's the first time where compliance has actually ended up being a benefit, but I'd say the opportunity for every industry still exists. I would say this is a big leadership moment for all the leaders that are out there. This requires vision. It requires prioritization, and it requires, again, a sense of urgency because everybody's watching to see what you're going to do.
And so the time to act is definitely now.
Akanksha Bilani:
I love it. It also requires a belief in your ecosystem, you know, with the capabilities and recognizing that it's not something that one industry or one organization can do on its own, but is okay about, you know, learning as well as asking for the right directions from the experts that are in the industry, because we're all learning from each other on a daily basis.
Ben Schreiner:
One of the things I'll say about AWS that I really like and Intel is, is to look ahead vision and trying to solve problems that aren't problems yet. Right. And really trying to set roadmaps and do things in advance. So we released AgentCore which, you know, over the summer. And that's a perfect example where we're like, where are these agents running?
And is it a secure environment that it's running in? And how are you going to monitor and how are you going to govern, and how are you going to authenticate? Like these are all things that when you only have 1 or 2 agents, people don't worry about it as much. But when you have thousands and potentially hundreds of thousands of agents doing things on your behalf, you are going to need a way to govern and control and have visibility and monitoring.
And so those are all things that we're sort of running ahead to put the, you know, guardrails into control so that you can operate in a secure, safe, reliable way because we know, through our own experience, that those are requirements and expectations of any enterprise. Making sure that you do this in a responsible way is paramount.
Akanksha Bilani:
Not only is it about agility, not only is it about accuracy, but it's also about how we can drive efficiencies with cost. It's been incredible to just see you guys having that vision to drive the right CapEx and OpEx for AI for an organization. It's been really, rewarding.
Ben Schreiner:
I love that you say that because, I mean, at the end of the day, each of our customers has to pay for these solutions, and there has to be a return on that investment. And so we want to drive down, as best we can, the cost to serve. If you can solve more of your problems because it's more affordable, that allows you to go further and faster.
That's really the time that we're living in right now, which is very exciting.
Akanksha Bilani:
What do you feel in the next five years? Can you give me an outlandish prediction?
Ben Schreiner:
We are the last generation of managers to only manage people, and so we're going to see all of our jobs evolve. This is the time for human creativity to truly peak, right? Let's use these tools to do this stuff we don't want to do, so that we can free up our time to do the things that we, the humans, can uniquely do.
And that's our critical thinking. It's establishing relationships. It's working together. It's finding partnerships. It's building, you know, it's what we've been doing for centuries, right? And now we're going to get an opportunity to really maximize our creativity. And that's honestly what I'm most excited about. It is, you know, what I enjoy doing. And, again, it's been fun partnering with you and Intel to help our customers not just be inspired, but actually inspired to take action.
Akanksha Bilani:
Oh, my God, you couldn't have said it in a better way. And neither could I. Thank you so much, Ben. It's been incredible working with you, with your team and with AWS, having that vision of making the impossible possible. It's what gets us excited about, you know, just the art of innovation that AWS leads for the industry today.
Ben Schreiner:
We are definitely going to keep pushing the envelope.
Akanksha Bilani:
Thank you Ben. Well, that wraps up our show today. You've been listening to Rewired. The podcast celebrating innovation on the bleeding edge. Brought to you by Intel and AWS.
Check out our show notes on the rewired page at www.rewired-podcast.com, or wherever you listen to podcasts, for links to learn more about what we discussed today.
Again, I am your host, Akanksha Bilani, and I would like to extend a massive and a warm thank you to Ben for being here and sharing these awesome stories and vision with us.
Ben, thank you so much for coming in!
Ben Schreiner:
Thank you.
