AI is increasingly becoming part of daily work for software engineers, but for one Amazon employee the technology now plays a far bigger role than many might expect. Anni Chen, a software engineer who has spent about three-and-a-half years at the company, told Business Insider that most of the code she produces today is generated with the help of AI tools. Rather than slowing her career down, Chen says her ability to use AI effectively helped her move up the ladder faster inside the company.
Chen joined Amazon in 2022 as a Software Engineer I, an entry-level position, where she worked on the recommendations team responsible for systems that power product suggestion widgets. Around the same time, generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude began gaining attention, and she started experimenting with them during her work.
What began as small experiments gradually became part of her regular workflow. Instead of turning to AI only when she got stuck, Chen started using it as the first step whenever she needed help with a task.
“Now I would say almost 95 percent of the code authored by me is written by AI.”
Amazon employee used AI as the starting point for coding
Chen says the change happened when she realised AI could help with more than small tasks. One of her early uses involved asking AI to “generate engaging titles for recommendation widgets.” The results encouraged her to explore how the tools could support more complex development work.
“I started thinking, whenever I have a question or I want to code something up, I’ll just ask AI for help first before I attempt it.”
Over time, the AI-generated suggestions helped her produce code faster and approach problems differently. But Chen says the real advantage was not simply generating code quickly. Instead, she believes the key skill is knowing how to convert AI output into products that can work at scale.
“AI helped me code, but more importantly, it helped with turning it into products. It’s the combination of grasping AI and translating it into scalable products that helped me get promoted faster.”
She used AI for coding and even received promotions for great work
Chen’s work with AI eventually expanded beyond experiments and became part of larger projects. These efforts later evolved into a dedicated team focused on AI-driven products, where she is now one of the founding engineers.
Her career also progressed during this period. She was first promoted within the recommendations group to Software Engineer II. After moving into the newer AI-focused team, she received another promotion and moved into a senior engineering role.
Today, Chen works on systems powered by large language models that run in production environments. Her work focuses on technology that supports personalised generative AI experiences across Amazon’s platforms.
Despite relying heavily on AI tools, Chen says engineers must still take responsibility for the code they ship.
“You have to understand your own code. AI lowers the barrier to writing code, but not the responsibility for understanding it.”
She also warns that developers cannot blame AI if something breaks.
“Imagine your code breaks in production, and you need to fix it, and you say, ‘I also don’t know, AI told me.’ That’s not the correct way.”
