• AWS's CEO, Matt Garman, said Amazon sees demand for hiring new software engineers "accelerating."
• He said Amazon will hire 11,000 SDE interns in 2026 — the company says it's similar to recent years.
• Other AI leaders warn coding tools could significantly disrupt software engineering jobs.

Software engineers are still important to Amazon, according to AWS CEO Matt Garman.

At Amazon's What's Next with AWS event on Tuesday, Garman said Amazon is continuing to hire developers, even as AI tools reshape how they work.

"I can tell you we are hiring just as many software developers as we ever had inside of Amazon," he said. "And in fact, I see the demand for that really accelerating."

Garman said Amazon plans to bring on 11,000 software engineering interns in 2026 — a figure an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider is in line with previous years.

While Garman pushed back on the idea that AI will disrupt software engineering jobs, he said the role itself is changing as new tools automate parts of the work.

"The jobs will be a little bit different," he said. "Being an expert at being able to author a Java code snippet is going to be less valuable in the future than it was maybe a couple of years ago."

Instead, he emphasized broader skills, such as building applications and solving customer problems. He added that technical knowledge remains important, particularly when working with customers using cloud services.

His comments come as some tech leaders warn that advances in AI coding tools could disrupt the profession.

Since late 2025, companies including Anthropic have released tools capable of generating code in minutes. In February, Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code, said the title "software engineer" could eventually "go away." Andreessen Horowitz partner Martin Casado has also said the field is being "disrupted as a discipline."

Garman has previously dismissed more aggressive takes. In August, he said the idea of replacing junior employees with AI was "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."

Amazon's software development intern hiring comes even as the company has carried out layoffs across parts of its corporate workforce, including cuts affecting about 16,000 employees earlier this year. The company said the layoffs were not primarily driven by AI.

"Amazon remains committed to our internship program as an important pathway to finding the next generation of leaders and builders," an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider. "Across the company, we're on track to have over 11,000 interns and early-career full-time SDEs join us globally this year."