Amazon engineers say AI has turned coding into an assembly line

A hot potato: Software engineers at Amazon are experiencing mounting pressure as artificial intelligence becomes central to their daily work, fundamentally altering how they write code, collaborate, and advance in their careers. Over the past year, managers have raised expectations and shortened deadlines, pushing engineers to adopt AI-powered tools like Microsoft's Copilot and Amazon's assistants to keep up with a relentless pace. Teams that once counted a dozen developers have been cut in half, yet the volume of code they're expected to deliver remains unchanged – a shift that one engineer described to the New York Times as "building a feature for the website used to take a few weeks; now it must often be done within a few days." This transformation is not just about speed. Engineers say the nature of their work is changing, with thoughtful programming giving way to a process that feels more like an assembly line. "It's more enjoyable to write code than to review it," Simon Williso ... Read full article.