Amazon directs its engineers to use Kiro over rival AI coding tools

Amazon has directed its engineers to use its own AI coding tool, Kiro, after a memo on its internal news site said the company will continue supporting existing tools but will not back additional third-party AI development tools, Reuters reported.

Kiro, launched in July, is Amazon’s AI tool for code generation that lets developers build websites and apps using plain English commands. It relies heavily on Anthropic’s coding tools, though not Claude Code itself.

“As part of our builder community, you all play a critical role shaping these products and we use your feedback to aggressively improve them,” the memo said.

Amazon has been trying to counter the view that it lags behind rivals like Google and OpenAI in the development of AI tools. The move appeared to rule out the use of coding tools such as OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code and those from Cursor, despite the company’s roughly US$8 billion (S$10.41 billion) investment in Anthropic and its US$38 billion deal with OpenAI.

Senior vice president for AWS utility computing Peter DeSantis and eCommerce Foundation senior vice president Dave Treadwell signed the memo, telling employees, “To make these experiences truly exceptional, we need your help.” The memo also said Amazon is making Kiro its recommended AI-native development tool.

The internal guidance follows Amazon’s recent move to expand Kiro globally and introduce new features. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the memo, while Anthropic, OpenAI and Cursor did not respond to requests for comment.

In October, Amazon updated its internal guidance for OpenAI’s Codex to “Do Not Use” after a six-month review, according to another memo reviewed by Reuters. Claude Code also briefly received the same “Do Not Use” designation before Amazon reversed the call following press queries. /TISG

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