Pulumi 3.17.1 introduces a significant enhancement that allows developers to directly call functions with resource outputs, eliminating the need for the previously required "apply" method. This update simplifies the process of integrating function calls and resources, particularly benefiting scenarios like provisioning and configuring AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR) repositories where credentials are needed to publish Docker images. Now, every function has an additional Output form that accepts Input-typed arguments and returns an Output-wrapped result, streamlining code and improving readability. This advancement is applicable across multiple programming languages supported by Pulumi, such as TypeScript, Python, Go, and C#, and is especially useful when dealing with resource outputs as function inputs. While the new Output form is recommended for these use cases, the existing non-Output form remains suitable for scenarios involving control flow logic. To take advantage of these improvements, users should upgrade to Pulumi 3.17.1 and ensure their providers are updated to compatible versions.