In a recent conversation, Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), said the idea of replacing junior employees with artificial intelligence (AI) is "the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Garman discussed AWS's Kiro AI-assisted coding tool with AI investor Matthew Berman and mentioned that some business leaders believe AI could replace all junior employees within companies.
Garman questioned, "Then who will be there to learn in ten years?" He believes that junior employees are usually the cheapest workers in a company and have the closest contact with AI tools. He emphasized, "We should continue to recruit young people from universities and teach them how to build software correctly and analyze problems."
Garman also opposed another view about AI, which measures its value by the percentage of code generated by AI within an organization. He called this a "stupid metric," because while organizations can use AI to write "an infinite amount of code," the quality of that code may not be high. "Often, less code is better than more code," he said. "I've never understood why this metric interests people."
Nevertheless, Garman noted that over 80% of AWS developers use AI in some way. He mentioned that AI's applications go beyond just writing code, including writing unit tests, helping to write documentation, and working with AI agents. He pointed out that AWS developers are using AI tools more frequently each week.
When talking about career development advice, Garman mentioned that modern young people need to learn how to learn, rather than just mastering specific skills. "The skills that should be emphasized include: how to think independently? How to develop critical thinking for problem-solving? How to cultivate creativity? How to develop a mindset of lifelong learning?" He believes that with the rapid development of technology, relying solely on narrow skills is difficult to maintain a 30-year career. He hopes educators will teach students how to think and how to break down problems, believing that young people who master these skills will succeed in the future.
Key Points:
✨ Junior employees are the cheapest and have the closest contact with AI tools, and they cannot be easily replaced.
📊 The percentage of code generated by AI is seen as a "stupid metric," and high-quality code is more important than quantity.
🧠 Modern education should focus on developing students' independent thinking, problem-solving abilities, and a mindset of lifelong learning.
