Amazon has recently surprised many by adopting an AI coding tool developed by the startup Anysphere. This move is a clear sign that even tech giants are looking beyond their in‐house capabilities to harness specialist solutions.
On the ‘No Priors’ podcast, investor Elad Gil pointed out that the coding arena is gradually being dominated by a few key players – including Cursor (now rebranded as Qodo), Cognition AI with its tool Devin, and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot. Instead of reinventing the wheel, companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are increasingly relying on the ingenuity offered by startups.
Amazon’s decision to implement Cursor, an AI tool from Anysphere, is particularly intriguing given that the company already has its own tools, such as ‘Q’ and the upcoming assistant ‘Kiro’. Likewise, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has been exploring both Cursor and Replit while working on a personal webpage, underscoring how these tools can cater to different technical levels and needs.
The way we code is undergoing a transformation, turning a once specialised skill into something far more accessible. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang captured the essence of this shift when he remarked that ‘everyone is a programmer now’. AI tools are empowering people to produce digital content using plain English, though some platforms still require a dab more technical finesse than others.
Whether you’re an experienced developer taking advantage of a full-featured integrated developer environment like Cursor, or someone just starting out with more beginner-friendly browser-based options like Replit and Bolt.new, the future of software development looks set to become both more efficient and inclusive.
