Amazon Web Services launches Kiro for writing code with AI help
July 14 (UPI) -- Amazon Web Services on Monday released Kiro, a program that allows developers to write code with help from artificial intelligence.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy launched the service in a post on X.
"Introducing Kiro, an all-new agent IDE [Integrated Development Environment] that has a chance to transform how developers build software," Jassy wrote about the service from Amazon's Web Services, which is the leading provider of cloud infrastructure.
Amazon's name doesn't appear in the announcement, Geekwire noted.
AWS launched in 2006 and includes storage and computing power. In 2024, its revenue was $107.6 billion. Overall, Amazon's revenue was $637.9 billion, including retail services, delivery, digital content, devices, Whole Foods, physical stores
Vibe coding directs computers to creative software without much human direction.
After the free preview ends, free and premium versions of Kiro will be available.
The company plans three pricing tiers: a free version with 50 agent interactions per month; a Pro tier at $19 per user per month with 1,000 interactions; and a Pro+ tier at $39 per user per month with 3,000 interactions.
Jassy noted the advantages of its program, which uses AI models from Amazon-backed Anthropic but there will be alternatives.
"Kiro is really good at 'vibe coding' but goes beyond that," he said. "While other AI coding assistants might help you prototype quickly, Kiro helps you take those prototypes all the way to production by following a mature, structured development process out of the box. This means developers can spend less time on boilerplate coding and more time where it matters most -- innovating and building solutions that customers will love."
Diagrams and tasks are generated to streamline development, AWS said.
Kiro now can only communicate with people in English.
Two product developers, Nikhil Swaminathan and Deeak Sing, gave some details on the programming service and provided a tutorial.
"I'm sure you've been there: prompt, prompt, prompt, and you have a working application," they wrote. "It's fun and feels like magic. But getting it to production requires more. ... Requirements are fuzzy and you can't tell if the application meets them."
They said Kir works "like an experience developer catching things you miss or completing boilerplate tasks in the background as you work. These event-driven automation triggers an agent to execute a task in the background when you save, create, delete files, or on a manual trigger."
In one example, they showed how an e-commerce application for selling crafts can add a review section for users' feedback on crafts.
They looked to the future, writing "the way humans and machines coordinate to build software is still messy and fragmented, but we're working to change that. Specs is a major step in that direction."
Other companies are going into vibecoding, CNBC reported.
Google plans to make its Gemini Code Assist more useful for software developers. On Friday, the company paid a $2.4 billion for licensing rights and top talent from AI software coding startup WIndsurf.
On Monday, AI startup Cognition announced it is acquiring Windsurf's intellectual property, produce, trademark, brand and talent for an undisclosed amoint.
Microsoft's GitHub's agent allows its Visual Studio Code to work in agent mode for automated software development.
Anysphere has developed Cursor and plans to raise money at a $10 billion valuation.
OpenAI had considered acquiring Windsurf and Cursor.
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