AWS CEO says replacing junior devs with AI is 'one of the dumbest ideas'
The latest “AI will replace junior developers” takes got a pointed rebuttal from AWS CEO Matt Garman. His argument isn’t that AI tools won’t change the day-to-day of coding; it’s that treating junior roles as the obvious place to cut is both strategically risky and (often) not even the biggest lever for cost savings.
He makes three practical points: (1) junior developers are frequently the most fluent with new AI tooling and are well-positioned to squeeze real productivity out of it, (2) junior roles are typically the least expensive, so eliminating them doesn’t always deliver meaningful savings versus other budget levers, and (3) removing entry-level hires breaks the internal “talent pipeline” that creates future senior engineers and managers. Without juniors to mentor, teams lose a key source of fresh ideas and eventually pay the price in hiring constraints and slower growth.