As businesses reassess the cost of adopting artificial intelligence, Amazon is urging employees to focus on meaningful results rather than maximising their use of AI tools.
The guidance appears in an internal memo outlining AI usage practices for software engineers. Circulated in September, the memo was published on the company’s website on October 27.
Amazon said metrics such as token consumption, AI tool adoption rates and the volume of code changes or reviews remain “deeply flawed” measures of AI usage. The company warned that relying too heavily on these indicators could increase costs and create unnecessary complexity. However, it said employees could still use these metrics “with care and judgement” when considering career growth and organisational performance.
The memo also discusses how software engineering roles and management responsibilities are evolving in the AI era.
“We’re just seeing the beginning of AI’s effect on software engineering. While we have a vision for what the future looks like, there’s a lot that’s still emerging. We are certain that whatever future best practices are, AI will be at the center of software engineering practice,” the company said.
Companies rethink AI spending
Amazon’s guidance comes as businesses reconsider their approach to AI usage. Tokenmaxxing refers to employees using AI tools as extensively as possible, often treating higher consumption as a sign of productivity.
Although token prices are falling, the cost of completing tasks is rising as AI providers move from flat subscriptions to usage-based pricing. This makes expenses harder to predict as the amount of AI processing required for each task varies.
Some companies have introduced token usage limits, while others have shifted certain workloads to cheaper, open-source models.
Amazon has not imposed token usage caps. However, in May 2026, it reportedly shut down an internal leaderboard after discovering that employees were maximising token use to improve their rankings.
The company said, “We believe that it is best to measure, and be measured by, long-term outcomes.” It also advised employees against using AI when it does not suit the task.
“If your work does not benefit from current AI tooling, that is a finding, not a failing […] An engineer who can explain where AI does not yet help their work is demonstrating the judgement we are asking for,” the memo stated.
CEO Andy Jassy has said AI will “change the scope and speed” of daily work and could reduce corporate roles through automation, while also creating “other jobs.”
Amazon recently laid off fewer than 1,000 white-collar employees, mainly in retail. These cuts follow a broader reduction of 30,000 jobs that began in 2025 and continued into January 2026.
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