Amazon seems to be gearing up for a bigger push into AI-assisted software development. According to an internal document accessed by Business Insider, the tech giant’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is developing a new tool named Kiro — an AI-powered application designed to generate code in near real-time using AI agents.
The tool appears to be a big leap over Amazon’s existing offering, Amazon Q. As per the document, Kiro is being designed as a web and desktop application that can be customised to work with both Amazon’s internal AI agents and external third-party ones. It also integrates with various knowledge bases, extensions, and even developer themes, indicating that Amazon is aiming to make this a robust all-in-one tool for coders.
What sets Kiro apart is its planned multi-modal interface, which will allow developers to input not just text, but also diagrams and other types of context to help generate more accurate and useful outputs. The internal memo suggests that the tool will be able to perform a range of tasks—from writing code and generating technical design documents to flagging issues and suggesting improvements.
Although there’s no confirmation of an official release date, AWS was earlier considering a launch around late June. Whether that timeline still holds is unclear.
AWS has not officially commented on Kiro. However, a spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is actively working on AI features across its developer tools. “AI agents are rapidly transforming the development experience, and we’re just getting started,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Amazon developing real-time coding tool: Will this impact human jobs?
Amazon’s internal notes reportedly describe existing tools as “code-centric” and somewhat limiting. Kiro, in contrast, is being positioned as a platform to “reimagine” software creation. It is being said that the idea is to reduce time-to-code while increasing the quality and scope of what developers can produce. This suggests that Amazon’s latest move should not impact human jobs because the company is reportedly developing this coding tool to help developers. However, the mid-level software engineering jobs at lower levels will get affected by AI, something which Meta has said in the recent past.
This development comes at a time when AI-powered coding assistants are seeing a massive spike in adoption. During a recent earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy pointed to the rapid rise of tools like Cursor and Vercel, and noted that AWS customers are increasingly embracing coding agents to speed up development.
The broader industry is also seeing big moves in this space. Both Google and Microsoft have claimed that nearly a third of their code is now written by AI. Meanwhile, AI-focused startups like Anysphere, which makes Cursor, are attracting major funding, and OpenAI recently acquired coding startup Windsurf in a multi-billion-dollar deal.
90% of enterprise developers to use AI coding by 2028?
According to Gartner, nearly 90 per cent of enterprise developers will be using AI coding assistants by 2028, up from under 14 per cent just last year. What that means for human coders remains a big question.
A top Amazon official had said human coding will decrease
AWS’s top executive Matt Garman has previously said that the future may involve fewer people writing code directly, as AI handles more of the heavy lifting. He also stressed the importance of training existing staff to adapt to this change.
Amazon’s current AI assistant, Amazon Q, had a rocky start, facing internal criticism for being cost-heavy and lagging behind competitors like Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot. But the company maintains that the tool is evolving and that major clients such as Deloitte and ADP have already seen a rise in productivity.
If Kiro lives up to its vision, it could drastically simplify common tasks like setting up payment integrations or building basic features. According to the internal document, “With Kiro, developers read less but understand more, code less but create more.”
