Solution Heroes: Hannah Bloking on Building AI-First Solutions Teams

In the latest episode of Solution Heroes, I had the pleasure of speaking with Hannah Bloking, Senior Manager of Applied AI Acceleration Solutions Architects at Amazon Web Services — and yes, that title is as powerful as the work behind it. Hannah is also the co-founder of 4Under3, a fast-growing organization helping professionals navigate imposter syndrome in an era of rapid change.

What struck me most wasn’t just her depth of expertise in AI or her leadership experience at Amazon, it was how sharply she understands the changing expectations for today’s presales teams. Hannah believes this moment calls for a fundamental shift in how SEs work, learn, and show up for customers.

Every SE Needs to Be an AI Practitioner, Not Just an AI Presenter

Hannah’s biggest message to presales leaders was unmistakable: “Make every single presales engineer in your team an AI thought leader.”

There is a noticeable difference in how practitioners and theorists discuss AI. When SEs do not incorporate AI into their own workflows, this disconnect surfaces quickly in customer interactions.

Hannah’s litmus test? If someone describes their AI as “magic,” they’re not using the tools enough to understand their real constraints and possibilities.

AI fluency isn’t optional anymore — not inside the product, and not inside your team.

The Journey to Adoption Starts With Unexciting Work (and That’s the Point)

When I asked Hannah how she actually integrated AI into her team’s workflows, she gave the honest answer:

1. Map the workflows. Really map them — the repetitive tasks, the undifferentiated heavy lifting, the hidden manual steps.
2. Decide where AI is expected to be leveraged.
3. Set measurable goals and ROI expectations.
4. Track and report outcomes just like any other GTM initiative.

This is where leaders often fail. They encourage their teams to “use AI more” without ever defining where it fits or what good looks like.

For Hannah, this is more than efficiency, it’s credibility. If your team is selling AI transformation, they should also be living it.

AI Is Changing the Talent Profile and Curiosity Is Now Non-Negotiable

Amazon’s “learn and be curious” leadership principle has always mattered, but AI has raised the stakes. Hannah expects candidates to be self-initiating with AI tools, especially coding assistants or automation helpers.

The interview question she returns to again and again? “Tell me about a time when…”

She leans heavily on the STAR method to learn how someone approaches problems, navigates tradeoffs, and thinks beyond the surface layer.

Her early-career mentor once told her: “It’s not enough to know the light turns off in a room. You should want to understand why the light turns off.” That’s the DNA of a great Solutions Engineer.

The Most Underrated Challenge in AI Transformation: Legal and Security

One of the most practical insights Hannah shared came from her experience rolling out Amazon’s internal gen-AI tooling to hundreds of thousands of employees.

The biggest mistake teams make? Bringing legal and security in too late.

If your role is to drive change, their role is risk mitigation. These forces collide unless you bring them in at the very beginning. By engaging early, you avoid the nightmare scenario: months of progress blocked by last-minute constraints that were completely predictable.

Building a Team for the Future: AI Agents as Teammates

Hannah is currently building a brand-new AI-focused team (her third at AWS) and she’s approaching it with a radical mindset: AI agents aren’t tools, they’re teammates.

That means redesigning go-to-market workflows from the ground up:

• What can an AI agent do when a seller isn’t available?
• How should a Solutions Engineer collaborate with an AI teammate?
• How do you architect processes that include non-human contributors?

Enterprises everywhere are wrestling with the same questions. The difference is that Hannah’s team is actually operationalizing the answers.

The Hard Truth: Most Organizations Have a Data Problem, Not an AI Problem

One point Hannah made clear: “If you think AI is going to solve your data problem… no.”

Agents can’t be effective without:

• Curated data
• Consistent governance
• Clear context
• Thoughtful scoping

Teams often overestimate what an AI agent can do and underestimate the effort required to get there. Start smaller. Solve a real problem. Measure it. Scale from there.

Leadership Starts With Defining What a Solution Engineer Is

One of my favorite parts of the conversation was Hannah’s belief that every leader must clearly define the role of an SE inside their org. Otherwise, the org defines it for you — often incorrectly.

A Solutions Engineer is not:

• A demo factory
• A technical bandaid
• An order-taker

They are:

• Strategic problem solvers
• Domain experts
• Architects of customer value
• Long-term partners in the sales cycle

As Hannah put it, if leaders don’t articulate this, we fail our teams.

Four Under Three: Tackling Imposter Syndrome in a Changing World

Beyond her work at AWS, Hannah co-founded 4Under3 with longtime colleague Allison Macalik. Their mission? Help professionals identify and overcome imposter syndrome, something both of them battled throughout their early careers.

What started as a personal journey has become:

• Workshops delivered to groups as large as 4,000
• A thriving set of corporate programs
• A podcast exploring real stories of doubt, growth, and resilience

In a world where AI is redefining expectations overnight, imposter syndrome is evolving too, and Hannah is helping people navigate that change with honesty and empathy.

Key Takeaways

• AI fluency is the new baseline. Every SE must use AI daily, not just talk about it.
• Workflow clarity comes first. You can’t automate processes you don’t understand.
• Curiosity is now a hiring requirement. Tools are too powerful for passive operators.
• Legal and security are essential early partners. Bring them in from day zero.
• AI agents change team design. Roles, processes, and expectations must evolve.
• Your org needs a clear definition of the SE role. Without it, the role gets flattened.
• Imposter syndrome is real (and evolving). Supporting teams emotionally matters as much as supporting them technically.

If you want to hear the full conversation with Hannah, check out the episode of Solution Heroes here.