Amazon to hire 11,000 interns as AWS CEO says adaptability will outweigh coding skills in AI era

Artificial intelligence is starting to shift what software engineers do, and how one of the world’s biggest employers of tech workers screens for future talent.Amazon is bringing in 11,000 interns this year. Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Matt Garman says the company values candidates who are constantly learning, adapting to rapid technological change and solving unfamiliar problems — skills he believes will be increasingly important as AI automates technical repetition.The move is indicative of a larger shift occurring in the technology industry, with AI-powered coding assistants shortening the time spent on mundane programming activities. Amazon is moving away from the idea that technical skills are a static benchmark and is increasingly seeing it as a base that needs to be built upon with curiosity and the ability to learn new skills quickly.More and more, hiring decisions are based on a candidate’s intellectual agility and willingness to experiment with emerging technologies, rather than just expertise with a particular programming language or tool, Garman says.The company’s ongoing investment in internships also suggests that Amazon views early-career talent as a key contributor to an AI-powered workforce. “Graduates often bring fresh perspectives and are generally more open to taking on new technologies and ways of working, so they make valuable contributors as organisations rethink products and business processes,” Garman said.Also read: Amazon expands Mumbai data centre footprint with fresh 4-acre lease from L&TThe learning focus is happening as Amazon is deploying AI at a growing scale across its business. Despite the rise of AI-assisted coding tools, the company has said it now has more software developers than it did two years ago, suggesting that AI is changing the nature of engineering work, not replacing it altogether.The comments also dovetail with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s broader view that, while artificial intelligence is expected to boost productivity and eventually reduce demand for some corporate roles, it will also create demand for new skills and different kinds of work. For graduates entering the workforce, it could mean that employability will increasingly depend less on what they already know and more on how quickly they can adapt as AI continues to evolve.