Amazon staff demanded Cursor. They may be about to get it.
According to internal Slack messages, reviewed by Business Insider, several Amazon employees inquired about using the AI coding assistant Cursor at work. In response, an HR manager wrote that Amazon is in talks with Cursor’s team to formally adopt the popular development tool “asap.”
The HR manager added that the two companies are addressing “a few high priority security issues” before deploying Cursor’s AI tool.
“It all depends on whether we can make it work in line with our high security bar,” the HR manager wrote, referring to Cursor’s deployment. “But yes, I’m optimistic this could become a reality at Amazon.”
The size of the deal is unclear, but the HR manager is part of Amazon’s global HR team overseeing “genAI adoption,” according to this person’s LinkedIn profile. The Slack channel, dedicated to Cursor users, is open to anyone working at Amazon and has about 1,500 participants.
Cursor’s potential adoption at Amazon is notable, as the tech giant often urges employees to be cautious when using outside AI tools, particularly when Amazon has a competing product. In some cases, Amazon has banned the use to certain third-party AI tools at work.
The tech giant already offers its own AI coding assistant, Q, and has an internal AI chatbot called “Cedric.” Amazon is also developing a more advanced AI coding tool, codenamed “Kiro,” which could rival Cursor, BI previously reported.
At least one employee appeared surprised by the potential Cursor deal. “Very cool that Amazon isn’t scared to let us use it when we have multiple internal competitors,” this person wrote in Slack.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.
Cursor versus Windsurf and Q
The Amazon deal also reflects Cursor’s rapid emergence as one of the most popular AI coding tools.
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Anysphere, the maker of Cursor, raised $900 million at a $9 billion valuation last month, the Financial Times reported. The startup was worth $2.4 billion in December, according to TechCrunch. The company lists Stripe, Instacart, and Shopify as customers.
Even Amazon CEO Andy Jassy took notice. During last month’s earnings call, Jassy mentioned Cursor, an AWS cloud customer, as a key driver behind the “explosion of coding agents.”
In the Slack channel, which was created for those interested in Cursor, an internal poll showed that more than 60 Amazon employees favored Cursor over Windsurf, while just over 10 chose Windsurf. OpenAI recently agreed to acquire Windsurf for $3 billion.
“I’m sure once we’ve Cursor at Amazon, people will not pay much attention to Windsurf or other IDEs,” the HR manager wrote in Slack, referring to Integrated Development Environments, a common type of software that helps engineers write code more efficiently.
Several employees said they liked Cursor’s speed and ease of use, according to Slack messages.
One of them wrote that Cursor is “so much faster” than Amazon’s own AI coding assistant Q.
“Cursor changes are almost instantaneous, whereas Q dev still takes minutes to make a change,” the person wrote.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ekim@businessinsider.com or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.