What Amazon’s AI Leader Thinks About the Future of Your Job

Is AI coming for your job, or just the parts that you hate doing? Today on Digital Disruption, we’re joined by Rory Richardson, Director of Go-To-Market for Generative AI at Amazon Web Services (AWS). With over a decade of experience at AWS, she has been instrumental in launching and scaling breakthrough technologies, including non-relational databases and serverless computing. Rory has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of cloud development through her strategic leadership in go-to-market initiatives, empowering developers to expand the boundaries of what’s possible in the cloud. Driven by a passion for innovation, her current focus is on harnessing the potential of generative AI to transform developer tools, enabling more efficient, creative, and human-centered development processes. Rory sits down with Geoff to explain how generative AI can supercharge the developer experience, helping teams write better code, faster, and with fewer headaches. She shares her perspective that AI isn’t about replacing people, but about helping us do less of what we dislike, and why embracing AI now is one of the smartest moves leaders can make. Rory shares real-world examples from AWS, insights from developer culture, and a human-centered view on the rapidly changing AI landscape. In this episode: 00:00 Intro 01:04 Recap of Info-Tech LIVE 2024 in Las Vegas 01:35 What’s new in AI & developer tools 02:53 The rise of AI-powered command line tools 03:32 Why Amazon is paying people to play 06:44 “Vibe Coding” 08:10 Differential equations & development tools 12:00 Risks of rapid AI adoption 13:32 What does coding look like in 2028? 16:20 Creativity, context-switching & grit 18:07 How play drives innovation 19:34 Teaching AI in schools 23:10 Is age the biggest barrier to AI adoption? 28:20 What should junior Devs expect? 30:38 Better AI boundaries 35:01 Will AI replace Developers? 37:25 Accelerating innovation, not replacing humans 42:24 Why AI works best on repetitive tasks 44:11 Let AI do the dishes, not the art 46:04 From Paris, Texas to Amazon Web Services 48:19 Everything is learnable 49:09 The grit factor Connect with Rory: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roryr/ Visit our website: https://www.infotech.com/Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InfoTechRG