# AWS' Colleen Aubrey: Stop inventing new AI metrics, it’s your business metrics that matter

> AWS' Colleen Aubrey urges IT leaders to focus on business metrics instead of AI metrics for real impact.
- Title: AWS' Colleen Aubrey: Stop inventing new AI metrics, it’s your…
- Summary: AWS' Colleen Aubrey urges IT leaders to focus on business metrics instead of AI metrics for real impact.
- Keywords: aws, colleen aubrey, ai metrics, business metrics, ai roi, connect family, supply chain, planners, enterprise, SiliconANGLE
- Source: SiliconANGLE — https://siliconangle.com/2026/11/06/aws-colleen-aubrey-stop-inventing-new-ai-metrics-its-your-business-metrics-that-matter
- Author: Zeus Kerravala
- Published: 2026-11-06T18:56:52+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: aws, colleen aubrey, ai metrics, business metrics, ai roi, connect family, supply chain, planners, technology, enterprise
## AI metrics confusion
IT leaders struggle to measure AI success without clear business metrics.

> i worry that people start trying to come up with new metrics to measure the impact of ai but its the same metrics its your business metrics that matter
## Colleen Aubrey's background
AWS senior vice president with 20+ years at Amazon building customer products.
## Connect family success
Connect for contact center achieved success through deep operational experience.

> connect for the contact center was probably our most successful example
## Feature parity trap
AI projects that stall try to replicate entire workflows instead of fixing narrow pain points.

> they understood they weren’t going to achieve feature parity
## Business metrics focus
Wells Vehicle Electronics cut inventory by 7% while expanding monitored SKUs from 20 to 2,000.
## AI doesn't remove bottlenecks
Amazon improved deployment velocity by fixing test coverage and pipelines, not the coding assistant.

> the velocity didn’t come from the coding assistant it came from fixing everything downstream
## Own the outcome
Amazon redesigned roles around outcomes instead of tasks as ai takes over responsibilities.

> the only choice you can’t make is to own the task you have to choose to own the outcome
## Humorphism philosophy
AWS prioritizes ai that fits existing workflows over creating new interfaces.

> shipping good ai with a bad user experience will fail in my opinion
## Connect Talent maturity
Connect Talent reached general availability in september with early customers deploying.

> connect talent reached general availability only in september and has early customers in deployment
## Key takeaways for it leaders
Pick a wedge, kill ai roi slides, budget for downstream fixes, rewrite roles around outcomes.
## Final message
The ai era rewards companies that pick sharp problems and fix the plumbing they expose.

> the ai era won’t reward companies with the most pilots it will reward those that pick a sharp problem fix the plumbing it exposes
## AWS re:Invent event
AWS re:Invent runs nov 30-dec 4 2026 for ai and cloud technology leaders.
## Author background
Zeus Kerravala is a principal analyst at zk research with expertise in ai and cloud.
## Connect family products
Connect Customer, Connect Talent, Connect Health and Connect Decisions are aws ai products.
## Key takeaway

AWS' Colleen Aubrey says business metrics, not new AI metrics, should drive AI success for companies.