AI Assistant Amazon Q Offers a Radical Improvement in Software Engineering Efficiency
Amazon has made a significant leap in software engineering efficiency with the integration of its generative AI assistant, Amazon Q. According to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, the AI tool has drastically reduced the time needed to update foundational software, a process that typically takes software engineers much longer.
In a LinkedIn post, Jassy called the impact of Amazon Q a “game changer.” He detailed how the AI reduced the time needed to upgrade an application to Java 17 from 50 developer-days to just a few hours. “We estimate this has saved us the equivalent of 4,500 developer-years of work (yes, that number is crazy but, real),” Jassy said.
Beyond speed, the AI-generated code reviews have been impressively accurate, according to Jassy’s post. Amazon developers were able to ship 79% of the AI-generated code reviews without any additional changes. “The benefits go beyond how much effort we’ve saved developers,” he added. “The upgrades have enhanced security and reduced infrastructure costs, providing an estimated $260 million in annualized efficiency gains.”
Jassy’s comments reflect a broader argument often made in favor of artificial intelligence – that it frees up time by handling tedious but necessary tasks. “One of the most tedious (but critical tasks) for software development teams is updating foundational software,” Jassy explained. “This work is either dreaded or put off for more exciting work—or both.”
However, as Amazon enjoys these productivity gains, concerns are growing among developers about AI’s potential impact on job security.
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman recently suggested in an internal meeting that software engineers may need to adapt and develop new skills as AI takes on more coding tasks. “If you go forward 24 months from now, or some amount of time—I can’t exactly predict where it is—it’s possible that most developers are not coding,” he said.
In the mean time, Jassy has confirmed that Amazon will continue to leverage the capabilities of Amazon Q. “Not only do our Amazon teams plan to use this transformation capability more, but our Q team plans to add more transformations for developers to leverage,” he said.
