Amazon Urges Staff to Use In-House Kiro Over Rival AI Coding Tools

Amazon has advised its engineers to avoid third-party AI coding tools and instead use its in-house service Kiro, according to a Reuters report on Nov. 24. The guidance came in an internal memo posted to the company’s news site and later confirmed by an Amazon spokesperson.

According to the memo, Amazon said it would continue supporting tools already in use but does not plan to expand support for additional third-party AI development services. The note encouraged employees to offer feedback as the company works to improve Kiro, which launched in July.

Reuters also reported that the guidance appears to rule out tools such as OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code and products from startup Cursor. Amazon has invested about $8 billion in Anthropic and has a separate multi-year cloud deal with OpenAI, but the company has been working to strengthen its own AI portfolio as competitors accelerate their offerings.

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