315 – Stop Losing Deals: How to Make Your Software Visible to AI Agents

Will AI buy your software next? Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this discussion, Vinod Nair and Michael Levy explore how product-led growth (PLG) and agentic AI are fundamentally reshaping the AWS Marketplace. They detail why relying on traditional sales-led motions is becoming obsolete as AI agents increasingly take over software discovery and procurement. The conversation provides actionable insights on auditing API strategies, adopting outcome-based commercial models, and removing setup friction to capture the growing wave of machine-driven B2B buying. https://youtu.be/enLOuppFYq0?si=A1uPSJ9ioXO7zbTS Key Takeaways Product-led growth (PLG) allows users to discover, try, and buy solutions without relying on direct sales interactions. A successful free trial must deliver immediate value rather than forcing customers to spend time on complex setup processes. AI agents prioritize technical availability, structured metadata, and API access over traditional brand identity during procurement. The Marketplace MCP server acts as an official connector for Claude, driving a significant increase in AI-based search and evaluation traffic. Sellers looking to monetize agentic AI should transition their commercial models toward usage and outcome-based billing. Over 90% of surveyed global sellers are expected to transition to product-led growth within the next three years. If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags  product-led growth, AWS marketplace, agentic AI, software procurement, Claude connector, API strategy, outcome-based billing, SaaS transformation, technical availability, structured metadata, AWS seller prime, agent core payments Transcript Vinod Nair and Michael Levy AUDIO Podcast [00:00:00] Michael Levy: Humans, for the most part, care about brand and brand identity and all of that. Agents don’t care about that, right? It’s about the technical availability. It’s about the structured metadata. It’s about evaluating whether it’s the right tool to accomplish that task. [00:00:15] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us, the way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi. Own your host. And each week I sit down with leaders at the [00:00:33] Vince Menzione: intersection of technology, partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. [00:00:48] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. Let’s start. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: All right. Thank you. All right, [00:01:01] Vince Menzione: so we talked about product led earlier today with that, um. Agent powered. And then marketplace growth is, uh, is part, part of your, your mandate. You’ve got a lot of mandates though, from what I remember. Um, why don’t we just go through like introductions and tell, take us through your mandate, your individual mandates and roles at AWS. [00:01:20] Vinod Nair: Okay, thank you. Uh, my name’s Vinod Nier. I’ve been with AWS marketplace close to eight years now. Uh, I started off as a category lead and worked with. Elastic, uh, MongoDB Databricks. Uh, and that’s where I kind of learned that one of the big missed opportunities in marketplace is helping ISV