Amazon Unveils Kiro: An AI-Powered IDE with Spec Mode for Structured Development
Amazon has launched Kiro, an AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE) designed to revolutionize the way developers approach coding. The tool introduces a ‘spec mode’ that transforms vague coding requests into formal specifications, design documents, and task lists, solving the problem of unmaintainable code generated by vibe coding. Kiro is now available to the public after a successful preview phase, with over 250,000 developers using it in the first three months.
The market for AI-powered development tools is booming, with Gartner predicting that 90% of enterprise software engineers will use AI code assistants by 2028. Amazon’s Kiro has been well-received, with companies like Rackspace, SmugMug, and Flickr reporting significant efficiency gains. Kiro offers property-based testing and a checkpointing system to ensure code reliability and allow developers to roll back changes. The tool’s development has also been aided by its own use, enabling faster iterations and improvements.