I recently attended the AWS Summit Paris 2026, which took place on April 1st at the Palais des Congrès de Paris. This was my second consecutive year attending, and honestly, it felt even more impactful this time around.
I came in with a clear intention: to stay updated on the latest developments in AWS, especially around AI, while also taking the opportunity to network and better understand how I can grow my skills within the ecosystem. Like last year, the atmosphere was vibrant, familiar faces, new connections, and a strong sense of community. AWS did a great job with coordination, and the venue was filled with multiple halls dedicated to different tracks and industries, making it easy to explore based on your interests.
I arrived quite early because I didn’t want to miss attending the keynote at the main hall this time like I did last year. I managed to get a seat within the first rows of the main auditorium, which made the experience even more immersive.
The keynote opened with Amélie Clugnet, Director of AWS France, who welcomed everyone with a lot of energy. She highlighted that this year’s summit was special, as AWS is celebrating 20 years. She also shared some key figures about AWS’s presence in France, including major investments, a growing workforce, and a strong partner ecosystem.
One concept that stood out early on was the idea of structuring AWS strategy like an aerospace system, "Arienspace", something she described in terms of navigation, structure, and propulsion. For navigation, she pointed to services like Amazon Bedrock, while the structure was tied to foundational systems like AWS Nitro. It was a simple but powerful way to frame how AWS is thinking about the future of cloud and AI.
Next, Stéphane Israël took the stage to talk about the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. He emphasized the importance of sovereignty in cloud infrastructure, mentioning significant investment and the idea of a fully independent cloud structure designed specifically for Europe.
One of the most memorable moments for me came when Stephan Hadinger, CTO of AWS France, stepped on stage. He framed his talk around two simple but powerful questions: “Why?” and “Why not?” That really stuck with me. It shifted the perspective from just building solutions to rethinking what’s actually possible.
He spoke about having the right tools to build modern applications, and this is where agentic AI came into focus. Tools like Kiro were introduced as a way to go from prototype to production using AI agents. There was also mention of solutions that help move from insights to actions much faster, reinforcing how AWS is pushing toward more autonomous and intelligent systems.
The keynote also featured real-world use cases from companies. Stéphane Baumier shared how Canal+ has been scaling its platform to handle massive live audiences, reaching millions of viewers while maintaining operational excellence. It was interesting to see how these architectures are applied in high-demand environments.
Later, Marc Roussel talked about deploying AI at scale within organizations, especially the challenges of moving from experimentation to production. And Gautier Cloix brought a slightly different perspective, focusing on how AI, especially agent-based systems, can be used not just for efficiency, but to create real-world impact.
Another key takeaway came from Julien Lépine, who emphasized that AWS positions itself as the best place to build by combining infrastructure, data, and inference. That idea tied together a lot of what was discussed throughout the keynote everything from compute with EC2 and serverless with Lambda to data and AI integration.
One quote from the keynote really stayed with me:
“Don’t accept the limitations of today as the boundaries of tomorrow. We are just getting started.”
After the keynote, I spent most of my time exploring the expo floors, especially the areas focused on AI innovation, training, and builder communities. This was probably the most valuable part of the event for me personally.
I had a really useful conversation with the AWS Training team, where I discussed my current certification path and got advice on how to move forward, particularly toward AI-focused certifications. I also spoke with teams working on robotics navigation, something very close to my current research—which made the experience even more relevant.
I got introduced to Strands Robotics and learned more about how to get started in that space, which was exciting. Beyond that, I visited several other stands across different floors, including AWS partners working on security and observability in production systems. Each conversation added a new layer of perspective.
Unfortunately, I had to leave a bit early to catch my trip back, but even with that, the experience was incredibly valuable. Walking away from the event, I have a much clearer focus. I want to go deeper into AWS AI services, explore agent-based systems like those discussed during the keynote, continue my work in robotics, and strengthen my certification path—especially in the AI track.
AWS Summit Paris wasn’t just another tech event for me. It was a moment to reflect, learn, and reset my direction.