strAIght talk: AI tips for Amazonians

Episod

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  Understand why using one AI tool sharpens your answers 03.08.2026 15min

  "Which AI tool should I actually use?" Leo Ohannesian, a product manager on the Amazon Quick team, comes back to strAIght talk with a candid answer: pick one, go deep, and let it learn you. On this episode, he breaks down how Quick's desktop app builds a knowledge graph from your connected tools, learns your working style through procedural memory, and keeps your context fresh through an activity feed that reads your sources every 15 minutes. His biggest tip: open your feed, customize how it prioritizes your work, then ask Quick, "What's a repetitive behavior I've had that could just run for me?"  Guest: Leo Ohannesian, Principal Product Manager, Amazon Quick
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  Snoop Dogg as an AI judge: The 4-part framework behind Courtroom Chaos 03.08.2026 14min

  In this episode of strAIght talk, the Amazon Luna team breaks down the four-part "harness" framework they used to turn a simple chatbot into Courtroom Chaos, a live AI-native game with celebrity judges. You'll walk away with a repeatable approach for building AI experiences that feel intentional, not generic. Whether you're prototyping your first AI feature or trying to make an existing one stick, start here. Guests: Pen Szeto, Head of AI and Sergey Rudenko, AI Technologist  - Amazon Luna
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  Try The MIXX: the tool that does your meeting prep — from OP1 to offsites 27.07.2026 17min

  In this episode, an Amazonian shares how he got tired of watching the best offsite conversations happen by accident, so he built an Amazon Quick app that makes them happen on purpose. The MIXX takes pre-work survey responses and delivers a complete meeting prep packet: who should sit together, where the group already agrees, and where to spend your limited time.   Guest: Mark Boccia, Sr. Mgr, Learning Design & Delivery, Global AI Accelerator / Global Ops L&D
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  strAIght talk: 4 AI techniques that work 20.07.2026 12min

  We went back through every episode of strAIght talk and pulled together the four most essential AI techniques every Amazonian should know. Each one builds on the last, giving you a complete, repeatable approach to getting better results from AI. Whether you're brand new to AI or looking to sharpen your approach, start here.
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  The one question, asked daily, changed how this VP works, eats, and leads 13.07.2026 18min

  In this episode, a VP who leads HR for Amazon's global operations shares his personal AI journey: from basic prompts to a daily framework that changed how he runs meetings, helped him lose 20 pounds, and even helped someone in his community build a business plan. His one rule: stay the human in charge.  Guest: J. Ofori Agboka, VP People Experience & Technology (PXT)  - Global Operations, Amazon 
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  The AI debate partner technique: One team rebuilt onboarding in 6 weeks 06.07.2026 12min

  In this episode, Morgan shares how her talent development team used AI not just to code a new product, but to fundamentally rethink what onboarding should look like. What started as a debate with AI led to a six-week rebuild that shifted the focus from task completion to customer delivery.  Guest: Morgan Grimes, Sr Manager, Product Management, Amazon eXperience & Upskilling 
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  AI Solution Jams: 15 minutes to teach, 30 to build. Try it with your team 29.06.2026 15min

  One team in Global Tax Data used AI to reimagine how they work together — from automating month-end data validation that used to take days, to building an agent that translates code into plain English for compliance reviews. On this episode, members from Amazon’s Global Tax Data team share how "AI Solution Jams" (teach, demo, create) helped them scale AI experimentation across six countries and land three ideas in a finance-wide hackathon. Their biggest tip: it's about the habit, not the heroics. Start with the most repetitive thing in front of you and build from there.  Guests: Chris Jocson, Parmi Makh, and Raksha B from Global Tax Data team. 
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  ​AWS certifications made easy: Let AI create a custom study plan for you 22.06.2026 12min

  ​Carving out hours for exam prep feels impossible when you're juggling deliverables, launches, and meetings. On this episode, Sery Cybulski shares how she used AI to pass multiple AWS certifications with just 30 minutes a day. Her approach: tell AI exactly what you don't know, let it build a tailored study plan, and when you get questions wrong, feed them back so it adapts to your gaps. No cramming required.  ​Guest: Sery Cybulski, Senior Program Manager, AWS Support Engineering 
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  A rough idea + AI became Kate Spade's concierge — here's how 15.06.2026 13min

  One team at AWS used AI at every step to build Kate Spade’s AI "gift concierge" — a shopping assistant that asks customers what they need and narrows options through conversation. On this episode, David Dorf shares how they went from concept to live product in 12 weeks. His biggest tip: you don't need a perfect idea. Keep a backlog, present a rough one to AI, and let it research and refine until you pick up momentum.  Guest: David Dorf, Global Head of Retail Industry Solutions, AWS 
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  Don't scrap it, ask it why: How one marketer made five AI agents reliable. 08.06.2026 15min

  "I built an agent... now what?" Orlando O'Neill built five custom AI agents for his marketing work. On this episode, he shares how he makes them reliable: asking agents to diagnose their own mistakes, fixing issues permanently with steering files, and running weekly reviews to improve them over time. His biggest tip: when your agent gets something wrong, don't scrap it. Ask it why, and fix it together.  Guest: Orlando O'Neill, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Alexa Marketing 
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  Cortex Kickstart asked her one question, then built four AI agents 01.06.2026 12min

  Jackie Pizaña wanted AI to do more than summarize documents. Using an internal guided workflow called Cortex Kickstart, she built four AI agents that track commitments, flag escalations, prep coaching materials, and orient her week. Her biggest tip: lean into one tool, learn it well, and let your confidence build from there.Guest: Jackie Pizana, Senior Manager, Operations Field Talent Acquisition
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  8 weeks, no roadmap, and a 50% chance of success. Here's how Kiro helped this PM deliver. 26.05.2026 12min

  Eight weeks, no roadmap, and a 50/50 shot. Vedran Brozovic shares how he used AI to find the right data, generate technical requirements, and build an hourly forecasting system in weeks—not months. His biggest tip: ask AI questions like you'd ask a colleague, not a search engine.  Guest: Vedran Brozovic, Product Manager, Automated Profitability Management
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  Describe your problem, Amazon Quick builds the fix—try these skills today 20.05.2026 13min

  Spending your mornings triaging emails and rewriting the same docs? Eric Johnson shares how he uses Quick to turn everyday pain points into automated workflows. Just describe your problem, and Quick’s desktop app builds the solution for you.Guest: Eric Johnson, Principal Developer Advocate, AWS
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  Not a developer? You can still build real solutions — here's how 12.05.2026 17min

  You've got the idea. A tracker, a dashboard, a tool that would save your team hours. You just can't code it. Or can you? Two Amazonians share how to go from ideas to working prototypes using agentic coding tools. The secret? You don't need to know code; you need to know how to communicate.Guests: Alex Neier, Software Builder Experience (ASBX) & Curtis Morton, AWS Training and Certification
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  Your AI questions, answered—with a little help from Alexa 27.04.2026 21min

  Host Alex Kalish gets a little help from a very special co-host, Alexa, who steps in to ask the questions while Alex tackles your toughest listener submissions head-on. The throughline? Context is king, and Alex's five-step framework will change the way you think about AI.Guest: Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service available on hundreds of millions of devices from Amazon and third-party device manufacturers.
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  You're probably using AI like a search engine—here's how to make it your work partner 13.04.2026 15min

  Stop treating AI like a tool. Start treating it like a partner. Regional Director in Amazon Logistics shares how he transformed his relationship with AI from task assistant to strategic partner and the simple habit that made all the difference. His breakthrough: stop asking AI to complete tasks and start having conversations with it like you would with a colleague.Guest: Joe Hoeksema, Regional Director, Amazon Logistics
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  This PM used AI as a career coach—his tips for you to earn new opportunities 30.03.2026 16min

  Want to think more strategically and accelerate your career growth? Program Manager with Amazon's GoAI team, shares how he uses AI as a personal career coach to prepare for high-stakes meetings, build advocates, and shift from tactical execution to strategic thinking. His approach: create a context document with your role, goals, and priorities, then use AI to help you see what you're missing.Guest: Chris Meriwether, Program Manager
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  One prompt manages emails and slack—here's what it is 23.03.2026 10min

  Senior Manager AI/ML Specialist from AWS closes all his apps and does everything through AI for one day. The result? Events planned in minutes instead of hours, and a completely new way of working. Ahmed Raafat shares his "napkin test" and the daily prompt that keeps him focused on what matters. Listen to discover how the GenAI Day technique can work for you.Guest: Ahmed Raafat, Senior Manager, AWS
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  16-year Amazonian shares the AI technique he's adopting to build faster 09.03.2026 12min

  Principal Software Engineer shares how he went from AI skeptic to AI evangelist — and the exact technique that changed his mind. Learn about the prompt-driven development technique that made AI an indispensable partner for building faster.Guest: James Hood, Principal Software EngineerNote: Some tools, resources, and internal references discussed in this podcast may only be accessible to Amazon employees.Disclaimer: The views, techniques, and tool preferences shared in this podcast represent the personal experiences and opinions of the host and guests. Always follow your organization's security and compliance guidelines when implementing AI solutions.
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  Try this research prompt framework to get sharper, more useful analysis from AI 06.03.2026 12min

  Hosted by Alex Kalish, Product Manager - Technical at Amazon. Produced by Amazon's Internal Corporate Communications and Employee Experience Communications teams.