New AWS Heroes Announced – May 2026: Community Leaders Driving AI and Serverless Adoption

What changed

AWS announced its May 2026 cohort of AWS Heroes, adding two Artificial Intelligence specialists and two Serverless/AI hybrid experts to the program. The new Heroes are:

Hero	Location	Focus	Notable contribution
Damiano Giorgi	Pavia, Italy	AI & community building	Created the Unofficial post:Invent Session Suggester using Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Nova
Darryl Ruggles	Ottawa, Canada	Serverless, containers, FinOps	Publishes multi‑channel guides and runs the “Believe In Serverless” community
Ricardo Daniel Ceci	Buenos Aires, Argentina	AI & LATAM community	Leads the largest AWS User Group in Argentina, hosts a multilingual podcast
Matias Kreder	Buenos Aires, Argentina	AI certification & events	Co‑author of the AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam, three‑time DeepRacer finalist

These appointments expand the geographic and technical breadth of the Heroes program, giving enterprises direct access to peer‑validated expertise in regions that have historically faced talent shortages.

Provider comparison

While the Heroes program is AWS‑specific, the underlying strategy mirrors how other cloud vendors structure their community ecosystems. A quick comparison highlights where AWS’s approach offers distinct advantages for customers planning migrations or multi‑cloud expansions:

Aspect	AWS Heroes (2026)	Google Cloud Community Leaders	Microsoft Azure MVPs
Geographic reach	Strong presence in Europe (Italy) and LATAM (Argentina) plus North America (Canada)	Concentrated in North America and APAC	Broad US focus, growing in EMEA
Technical focus	AI (Bedrock, Nova) and Serverless (Lambda, containers)	Anthropic, Vertex AI, Cloud Run	Azure AI, Functions, AKS
Content format	Open‑source tools, podcasts, certification SME work, event organization	Blog posts, webinars, open‑source libraries	Technical deep‑dives, GitHub repos, Azure certifications
Business impact	Direct tooling that reduces session‑selection friction at re:Invent; FinOps guidance for cost‑aware serverless adoption	Emphasis on data‑analytics pipelines; less emphasis on cost‑optimisation guidance	Strong integration with Microsoft partner ecosystem; focus on enterprise licensing

The table shows that AWS is positioning its Heroes to address two high‑priority enterprise concerns: rapid AI adoption and cost‑effective serverless migration. By delivering community‑driven artifacts—such as the Bedrock‑powered session suggester—AWS reduces the time‑to‑value for new customers.

Business impact

Faster AI project kickoff

Damiano’s session‑suggester leverages Amazon Bedrock (foundation‑model service) and Amazon Nova (generative‑AI inference) to parse the re:Invent agenda and return a ranked list of sessions matching a user’s skill profile. For an enterprise planning a multi‑region AI rollout, the tool cuts the research phase from days to minutes, allowing teams to allocate more time to proof‑of‑concept development.

Serverless cost visibility

Darryl’s “Believe In Serverless” curriculum includes a FinOps module that demonstrates how to use AWS Cost Explorer, Compute Optimizer, and Lambda Power Tuning to model workload expenses before migration. Companies that adopt this guidance typically see a 15‑20 % reduction in projected serverless spend during the first six months.

Regional talent pipeline

Ricardo and Matias are expanding the LATAM community through podcasts, local meet‑ups, and certification workshops. Their efforts have already increased AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam registrations in Argentina by 30 % YoY. For multinational firms, this translates into a deeper local talent pool, lowering the cost of hiring senior AI engineers in the region.

Migration risk mitigation

All four Heroes contribute to a shared repository of migration checklists and best‑practice scripts hosted on GitHub. The repository includes:

• IaC templates for moving on‑prem workloads to AWS CloudFormation and Terraform
• Security hardening scripts using AWS Config and IAM Access Analyzer
• Performance benchmarking utilities that compare legacy latency against AWS Graviton‑based instances

Enterprises that adopt these assets report a 25 % reduction in migration‑related incidents, according to a recent AWS internal survey.

Strategic takeaways

1. Leverage community‑generated tooling – The session suggester and FinOps modules are ready‑to‑use; integrating them into internal training accelerates adoption.
2. Partner with regional Heroes – Engaging local leaders for workshops reduces travel costs and aligns training with cultural nuances.
3. Incorporate open‑source checklists – The shared migration repo provides a vetted baseline that can be customized, shortening the engineering effort required for lift‑and‑shift projects.
4. Monitor certification trends – Rising certification numbers in LATAM signal a growing skilled workforce, making the region attractive for new AI development centers.

By aligning migration roadmaps with the expertise of the new AWS Heroes, organizations can both lower operational risk and speed the delivery of AI‑enabled services.

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Learn more about the AWS Heroes program and connect with a Hero near you on the official AWS Heroes page.