Amazon

Why Mandating AI Tools Backfires: Lessons from Amazon and Spotify

Two stories dominated the AI-and-work conversation in early 2026. Amazon told its engineers that 80% had to use AI for coding at least weekly—and that the approved tool was Kiro, Amazon’s in-house assistant, with “no plan to support additional third-party AI development tools.” Around the same time, Spotify’s CEO said the company’s best engineers hadn’t written code by hand since December; they generate code with AI and supervise it. Both were framed as the future. Both also illustrate why mandating AI tools is a bad way to get real performance benefits, especially for teams that are already skeptical or struggling to see gains.