Amazon Web Services (AWS) aims to increase organic, grassroots adoption of its AI applications without heavily relying on sales teams. Competitors like Cursor and Windsurf have achieved more successful grassroots traction than AWS's coding assistant, Q Developer. Larger enterprise customers often prefer Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, according to an internal Amazon document obtained by Business Insider. Although Q Developer saw occasional success selling directly to senior executives, these wins required significant sales effort. To address this gap, AWS recently introduced Kiro, an AI coding assistant targeting self-serve developers. The internal document concedes that until recently, AWS lacked a compelling product for grassroots users. This reflects a shift in AWS’s AI strategy compared to its early cloud years when developers adopted its services organically. Q Developer's struggle to gain similar viral traction indicates AWS has not yet replicated its earlier bottom-up growth model within its AI offerings. The situation highlights an ongoing sales debate: whether to prioritize direct senior executive engagement or foster organic adoption by individual users before scaling. Traditionally, software companies focused on top-down sales to decision-makers signing companywide deals. However, the success of AWS’s cloud, Slack, Zoom, and the viral growth of AI tools like ChatGPT and Cursor have underscored the value of a bottom-up, user-driven adoption approach. An AWS spokesperson told Business Insider that all sales channels matter and noted that many developers use AWS independently before their employers adopt it.

They also reported a ninefold increase in per-person Q Developer usage this year, emphasizing AWS’s commitment to serving a diverse community of builders through both individual and enterprise adoption. Q applications are central to AWS’s AI strategy, showcased at the 2023 re:Invent conference and encompassing much of its AI portfolio. AWS relies on them to demonstrate competitiveness in AI as Microsoft and Google, with broader application portfolios, gain market share. However, Q Developer currently generates only a fraction of the revenue earned by rivals Cursor and Windsurf. AWS plans changes for the Q Business AI chatbot, aiming to shorten its sales cycle by shifting to a user-led model following an internal upgrade to a new AI agentic platform, code-named Quick. Yet, virality is difficult to manufacture, and traditional top-down sales remain important in regulated industries. Additionally, some viral-focused “vibe coding” startups have recently lost momentum. Matt Murphy, an investor at Menlo Ventures, observes that in AI tooling, conventional marketing and sales strategies are less effective, with word-of-mouth and strong user communities increasingly driving purchase decisions. Since Kiro’s launch in July, AWS has received positive feedback but also demand for enhanced controls. AWS plans to prioritize “enterprise-ready” features to boost Kiro’s adoption among corporate clients. Internally, skepticism persists about Q’s future; some employees question AWS’s strength in business applications, noting the company excels more in infrastructure services like compute and storage than in end-user software. AWS counters this view, highlighting its success beyond infrastructure with products such as Bedrock, Connect, and SageMaker, and asserting leadership in many third-party evaluations. Wall Street analysts share some employee concerns. Colin Sebastian of RW Baird suggested AWS’s weaker application layer could be a strategic vulnerability, potentially explaining why Google and Microsoft have accelerated more rapidly in enterprise AI adoption, despite expectations for faster AWS cloud growth ahead.