Amazon Rolls Out AI Coding Assistant Q and an AI App Generator

Amazon is rolling out new features for developers and businesses using its Q AI model.

Q can now write and debug code or make multi-line code suggestions. The tech giant is also offering a new tool called Amazon Q Apps that generates custom-built AI-powered apps based on text prompts.

Q can also answer questions for employees at work about their company’s operations. These custom chatbot features were first announced in November, but Amazon is now fully launching Q with its chatbot and coding capabilities to all its business clients. Q can also output data-driven narratives about a company’s performance over time, diagnose AWS issues, or help IT pros improve a company’s cloud services, for example. It can also help developers upgrade their software and analyze existing code.

“Since we announced the service at re:Invent, we have been amazed at the productivity gains developers and business users have seen,” AWS VP of AI and Data Swami Sivasubramanian said in a statement. “Early indications signal Amazon Q could help our customers’ employees become more than 80% more productive at their jobs; and with the new features we’re planning on introducing in the future, we think this will only continue to grow.”

While other AI coding tools like Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot and the so-called AI software engineer Devin already exist, Q Apps shares some similarity with Devin in that Q Apps can also create AI-powered software projects from start to finish with just a text prompt. Amazon hopes people use Q Apps at work to get tedious tasks done more quickly.

But AI tools aren’t perfect. Last year, some Amazon employees reported Q was prone to “severe hallucinations and leaking confidential data.” In response, Amazon said at the time that employees were sharing feedback internally, but claimed that no security issues were found.