Ifema Madrid hosted a new edition of the AWS Summit, the great annual meeting that Amazon Web Services holds in Spain, which this year had a special meaning as it coincided with the company’s 20th anniversary. According to the organization, more than 10,000 professionals, managers and developers gathered in the capital to learn first-hand about the latest developments in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and technological innovation, with more than 120 technical and business sessions distributed throughout the day.
The event was supported by a favorable macroeconomic context: Spanish GDP grew by 2.7% in the first quarter of the year, and the adoption of AI in the country is advancing at a rate of 22% year-on-year, making Spain one of the most dynamic technological ecosystems on the continent and leading the adoption of AI in Europe.
Suzana Curic: “Something is happening here”
Suzana Curic, AWS Country Leader in Spain and Portugal, opened the main Keynote with a message of optimism and conviction: Spain has a leading role in the European technological transformation. The directive highlighted the historical magnitude of AWS’s commitment to the country: the largest technological investment recorded in Spain, with 33.7 billion euros committed until 2035, which will translate into the creation of 29,900 jobs and a direct investment of 6.7 billion euros in infrastructure.
Curic also highlighted the strategic movement of infrastructure from Ireland to Spain, consolidating the country as a reference node in Europe, and announced the creation of an AI server recycling factory for the entire continent, with 1,800 associated jobs. «20 years ago we started with the S3 service to democratize technology. “Now we are doing it with the cloud, AI and agents,” he said.
In terms of training, AWS has already trained more than 200,000 people in Spain, with the aim of guaranteeing that the business fabric has the necessary talent to take advantage of these technologies.
AI to turn us into superhumans
Tanuja Randery, General Director of AWS in EMEA, chose the Madrid Summit among the twelve European events of the year to be present, a gesture that speaks for itself of the relevance that the company gives to the Spanish market.
His intervention revolved around the combination of artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous agents, which according to the directive “can turn us into “superhumans”, radically transforming current ways of working.
Randery mentioned some notable numbers: Generative AI is ten times faster than traditional methods, and more than 50% of companies already use this technology in some form. However, the board stressed that true transformation comes when adoption is advanced, with a decisive impact on the organization, and is not limited to isolated use cases. As an example of strategic adoption in the public sector, he cited the Axia project of the Government of Catalonia. Furthermore, he warned that to successfully integrate business AI with agentic AI, it is essential to meet three conditions: being in the cloud, having a solid database, and decisively investing in talent and human capital.
Nandini Ramani, VP of AWS, also participated in the opening keynote, focusing on the transformative power of the tools that AWS makes available to developers and companies. Using the example of Jane Goodall’s work with chimpanzees, accumulating 65 years of meticulous observation, Ramani illustrated how AI agents can bring similar value: continuously learning, observing and generating knowledge.
During his presentation, Ramani presented the latest news from the AWS ecosystem for developers. Kiro is presented as an integrated development environment powered by AI. Amazon Q expands its capabilities as a productivity tool for developers; 3M already uses it to reduce work times from hours to minutes. Amazon Transform enables businesses to modernize faster, and its custom version, Amazon Transform Custom, incorporates transformation agents that modernize any code base, including legacy systems written in COBOL.
Mercedes-Benz is one of the reference cases: the company has already eliminated 3,000 obsolete applications and is working with AWS to migrate its systems to Java. The catalog is completed with AWS DevOps Agent, aimed at automating tasks in continuous integration and deployment flows.
AI Report Presentation
Coinciding with the event, AWS published the study “Unlocking the potential of AI in Spain in 2026”, which precisely outlines the current state of artificial intelligence in the Spanish business fabric.
The headlines are positive: 61% of Spanish companies have already implemented AI solutions, eleven points more than last year and seven above the European average (54%). 81% of those who use it report direct increases in productivity, 89% expect it to boost the growth of their business in the next year and 71% already consider it a fundamental pillar of their strategy.
However, the report also shows that adoption remains largely superficial. 64% of companies focus on basic uses, such as chatbots, and only 17% declare advanced use, combining multiple models or deploying agentic AI. The contrast between types of company is striking: 74% of startups feel prepared to adopt agentic AI, compared to just 16% of large corporations, which have more legacy and greater organizational complexity.
Successfully integrating enterprise AI involves the use of cloud, solid database and human capital
The main obstacles identified are three. First, regulatory fragmentation: 44% of technology spending is allocated to regulatory compliance. Second, the shortage of qualified talent: 58% of companies cite the lack of digital and AI skills as a brake on progress. Third, the lack of incentives for innovation: 61% consider that government support is crucial or very important when deciding to adopt AI.
Added to this is a warning signal for the European ecosystem: 42% of Spanish startups state that they would consider moving outside Europe in search of greater financing, better access to global markets and a more predictable regulatory environment.
Organizations such as the Government of the Canary Islands, BBVA and Mapfre are leading the most advanced side of this transformation. The Canary Islands Government has reduced waiting lists for social services by up to 65% in three years thanks to agentic AI and Amazon Bedrock. BBVA has managed to reduce AI model development times by between 20% and 75% with its new MLOps framework on AWS. And Mapfre is redesigning the relationship with its customers and the development of new products at a speed that, according to its Chief Data Officer, “just a couple of years ago would have been unthinkable.”
The message from the AWS Summit Madrid 2026 was clear: Spain is in a privileged position, with an adoption of AI that exceeds the European average and with an unprecedented investment that reinforces the infrastructure necessary to make the leap to a real transformation. The challenge now is to convert that mostly basic adoption into strategic and deep use, securing talent, simplifying regulation and involving the public sector as an active driver of change.
