Amazon Tells Employees to Ditch Rival Coding AIs as It Pushes Its Own Tool, Kiro
Amazon Urges Its Engineers to Prioritize Kiro
Amazon is making a big internal push to promote its own AI coding assistant, Kiro, over competing tools from rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and fast-growing startups. According to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters, Amazon advised employees to avoid adopting additional third-party AI development tools and instead use Kiro, its in-house alternative launched in July.
The memo, posted on Amazon’s internal news portal, signals a clear shift in how the company wants its developers building software. While Amazon says it will still support third-party tools currently in use, it will not be approving or maintaining new ones going forward.
That includes some of the most popular AI coding platforms on the market today.
Amazon Draws the Line on Third-Party Coding Tools
In the internal guidance, Amazon states that engineers should avoid turning to external AI coding assistants. This means developers may need to move away from well-known tools like OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code, and newer platforms like Cursor—despite their huge popularity among programmers.
The memo’s message is direct: Amazon wants to centralize AI-assisted development around its own tool.
The shift is notable not only because these third-party tools are widely used, but because Amazon has deep financial and strategic ties with some of their creators. The company has invested roughly $8 billion into Anthropic and has a seven-year, $38 billion cloud computing deal with OpenAI. Yet despite these relationships, Amazon is signaling that controlling its internal tooling is a higher priority.
Kiro: Amazon’s Homegrown AI for Writing Code
Kiro, Amazon’s new AI-powered coding assistant, is designed to help developers generate code, build apps, and automate tasks using natural language prompts. Amazon describes it as its flagship, AI-native development tool.
Interestingly, Kiro is built using technology influenced by Anthropic’s AI models—just not the specific Claude Code product that engineers across the industry have embraced.
The memo emphasizes that Amazon wants Kiro to become the standard tool for developers across the company. It also positions employees as crucial contributors in improving Kiro’s features and performance.
The message, signed by senior AWS executive Peter DeSantis and senior eCommerce executive Dave Treadwell, says:
“We’re making Kiro our recommended AI-native development tool for Amazon.”
The Bigger Picture: Amazon Is Trying to Catch Up in AI Tools
Amazon has faced ongoing criticism that it has fallen behind other tech giants in the AI race. Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have been rolling out rapid advancements in developer tools and consumer AI products. Amazon, meanwhile, has been pushing to demonstrate that it's not just a cloud provider—it’s also an AI innovator in its own right.
Positioning Kiro as a company-wide standard is part of that effort.
The internal guidance came just days after Amazon announced a global expansion of Kiro, along with new capabilities intended to attract more developers. The move appears aimed at showing investors, partners, and employees that Amazon is serious about competing head-to-head with the leaders in AI coding tools.
Tension With Third-Party Tools Grows
The revelation that Amazon is restricting new third-party AI tools arrives at a time when many of those tools are thriving. OpenAI’s Codex, one of the earliest AI coding models, has powered many development workflows. Claude Code, favored for its detailed reasoning and structured outputs, has grown rapidly among engineers. The startup Cursor has surged so fast that it recently achieved a $30 billion valuation.
Despite this booming innovation outside the company, Amazon is tightening access internally.
This follows earlier internal restrictions. In October, Amazon issued a memo advising employees not to use OpenAI’s Codex after a six-month evaluation period. Claude Code was also briefly put under a “Do Not Use” guideline—until the policy was reversed after a journalist inquiry.
These reversals suggest internal debate and reevaluation, but the new memo indicates Amazon is now moving firmly toward standardizing on Kiro.
Why Amazon Wants Control Over Its Development Tools
Amazon’s push toward its own AI tool is not simply about competitiveness. It also reflects strategic concerns:
Data security
Using internal tools helps Amazon avoid sending proprietary code or internal systems information to third-party AI models.
Consistency and integration
Kiro can be tightly integrated into Amazon’s existing developer environment, allowing teams to work more uniformly.
Competitive positioning
Amazon doesn’t want to rely on tools developed by companies that are also its competitors in cloud computing and AI.
Building internal innovation
With thousands of engineers, Amazon has enormous testing and training potential to improve its own models faster.
The memo’s tone suggests Amazon sees Kiro as a long-term strategic asset—and it wants its employees helping to shape it.
How the Industry Is Reacting
Publicly, Amazon has confirmed the memo’s authenticity. But its AI partners have remained silent so far. Spokespeople for Anthropic, OpenAI, and Cursor did not respond to requests for comment.
Given the scale of Amazon’s workforce and its influence in the tech world, the internal shift could have ripple effects. If Amazon stops exploring or adopting new external tools, those tools may lose some of their biggest potential enterprise users. Conversely, it could push competitors to innovate even faster to maintain their market position.
Developers Caught in the Middle
For Amazon engineers, the guidance presents a practical challenge. Many developers rely on Codex, Claude Code, or Cursor for daily work because these tools are fast, polished, and deeply integrated into modern development workflows.
With Kiro still maturing, engineers may face an adjustment period as Amazon pushes the tool toward parity with its rivals.
The memo acknowledges this transition and directly asks engineers for feedback to improve the platform.
What Comes Next for Kiro
As Amazon expands Kiro globally and encourages internal adoption, the tool is likely to evolve quickly. The company’s strategy appears to be:
- Centralizing AI-based development within the company
- Reducing reliance on external models
- Competing more directly with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic
- Positioning AWS as a leader in AI development tools
Kiro’s long-term success will depend on how well it performs in real-world engineering use. With Amazon’s massive developer community now effectively required to use it, Kiro is on a fast track to becoming one of the most battle-tested AI coding tools in the world.
The Bottom Line
Amazon’s internal memo marks a decisive shift: the company wants to take control of its AI development ecosystem and move away from reliance on leading third-party coding assistants. By pushing engineers toward Kiro, Amazon is betting on its ability to close the competitive gap and build an AI tool that rivals anything on the market.
Whether Kiro can match or surpass Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Amazon is no longer willing to sit back and let competitors define the future of AI-assisted coding.