Show Notes
In this episode of Inside Partnering, I sat down with Sanjay Bhakta, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Condé Nast, live from AWS re:Invent. Sanjay leads all product, engineering, data, and enterprise technology across one of the world’s most iconic media companies. His team builds and operates the platforms behind brands like Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, and more. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Condé Nast is 115 years old, yet its technology transformation over the past few years has been nothing short of remarkable. When Sanjay arrived, the organization operated across 13 separate markets, each with its own tech stack, CMS, processes, and infrastructure. His mandate: unify the company under a modern, global platform that accelerates content creation, improves customer experience, and enables sustainable innovation. “When I started we used to operate as 13 separate markets, each with its own tech stack. The goal was really to bring everything together into one global consolidated platform.” A Unified Global Platform Built on AWS The move to AWS was a strategic step in simplifying and accelerating engineering, infrastructure, and content delivery. It also brought major operational benefits. “Moving to public cloud and getting out of the multiple data centers we had has helped drive a lot of cost out from an infrastructure standpoint. And it allows us to innovate faster and scale quickly.” The company now deploys features globally with unprecedented efficiency. A change built once can be rolled out across brands and regions nearly instantly. Sanjay emphasized that AWS Marketplace has become an important accelerant for onboarding tools and vendors. “It makes it really easy to onboard a partner when you’re going through the Marketplace. AWS stands behind it and it helps us get things out to market fast.” This model also supports Condé Nast’s committed cloud spend and ensures tighter integration across the tech stack. AI for Both Internal Efficiency and Consumer Experience Sanjay’s team began their AI journey focusing on internal use cases in engineering, DevOps, QA, rights management, and content workflows. Today leveraging AWS Bedrock, AI supports coding, testing, deployments, contracts processing, and internal automation. Externally, AI enhances personalization, recommendations, pricing, newsletters, segmentation, and more. “We are doing both. Early days we focused a lot on internal use cases. We use AI extensively for code generation, testing, deployment, and many internal workflows.” A standout example is their new contracts and rights clearance system. “It used to take us weeks to clear rights for a particular asset. Now that all the contracts are in the system, it’s almost instantaneous.” And on the consumer side, innovation is accelerating quickly. Condé Nast partnered with OpenAI to launch a natural language powered smart recipe tool for Bon Appétit, enabling dynamic customization and dietary adjustments. They also launched AI powered image search for Vogue, enabling access to tens of millions of runway images through natural language search. Brand Identity at Scale Unifying platforms does not mean standardizing brand expression. Each iconic Condé Nast brand maintains its own voice, identity, and aesthetic. Sanjay described a delicate balance: build globally reusable capabilities while ensuring each brand’s unique personality shines through. “Brand expression has been crucial. We want each brand to express themselves with their own voice and look and feel. We build reusable capabilities, but brand expression has to be unique.” This approach allows the company to innovate globally while preserving the creative integrity of world renowned editorial teams. Harnessing the Power of Data and Generative AI A major next step for Condé Nast is vectorizing its vast content archives across tens of mi
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