Amazon Advocates for Proprietary AI Tool Over Competitors
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – In a strategic initiative aimed at enhancing its proprietary AI offerings, Amazon has advised its engineers to refrain from using third-party AI code generation tools.
This directive, highlighted in an internal memo accessed by Reuters, emphasises the importance of the newly introduced Kiro service, which debuted in July.
The memo, which was circulated on Amazon’s internal communication platform, stated, “While we continue to support existing tools currently in use, we do not plan to endorse additional third-party AI development tools.” This proclamation underscores the company’s commitment to its internal resources.
Amazon’s guidance appears to effectively bar its employees from employing other popular coding solutions such as OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code, and offerings from the startup Cursor.
This decision is particularly striking given Amazon’s significant investments in the AI sphere, including approximately $8 billion in Anthropic and a seven-year, $38 billion partnership with OpenAI for cloud-computing services.
The move comes as Amazon grapples with a perception that it is lagging behind competitors such as OpenAI and Google in the race to advance AI tools.
Kiro, Amazon’s in-house AI tool for code generation, facilitates the creation of websites and applications through simple English commands.
While it draws from a variety of coding frameworks pioneered by Anthropic, Kiro is not specifically based on Claude Code.
“To elevate these user experiences to outstanding levels, we require your collaboration,” the memo asserted, bearing the signatures of Peter DeSantis, senior vice president of AWS utility computing, and Dave Treadwell, senior vice president of eCommerce Foundation. “We are designating Kiro as our preferred AI-native development tool for Amazon.”
This internal directive follows the recent expansion of Kiro’s availability to a global audience, coupled with the introduction of new features.
Representatives from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Cursor did not immediately respond to comment requests, although an Amazon spokesperson verified the existence of the memo.
Codex, Cursor, and Claude Code have emerged as favoured tools among engineers for rapidly deploying new services. Notably, Cursor reached a valuation of nearly $30 billion following a funding round earlier this month.
In a notable shift, Amazon had updated its internal recommendation regarding OpenAI’s Codex to “Do Not Use” after an extensive six-month evaluation, as evidenced by a memo reviewed by Reuters.
Similarly, Claude Code was initially designated as “Do Not Use,” although this classification was later rescinded following media inquiries.
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