Amazon has joined the growing list of companies telling software engineers to stop tokenmaxxing just to look like you’re using AI, and instead use the technology only when it actually makes sense.

That’s the clear message from Amazon to its engineers via a memo the company chose to publish, telling staff: “if your work does not benefit from current AI tooling, that is a finding, not a failing.”

The memo to staff follows reports earlier this year that suggested Amazon staff were using AI for unnecessary tasks in order to move up internal rankings on an AI adoption leaderboard.

The memo was sent in September to software development engineers (SDEs) and software development managers (SDMs).

Not every task needs AI

Terk Terkowitz, vice president and distinguished engineer at Worldwide Amazon Stores, said engineering leaders at the organization had created an “updated role guideline” after concluding that the key elements of software development hadn’t really changed despite the impact of AI coding.

“Our most prolific engineers have demonstrated that neither the developer role nor their output is defined by the use of AI,” Terkowitz said. “We’re now in the era of the Renaissance Developer, blending AI tools with human judgment and domain expertise to build entirely new things.”

The new attitude suggests a shift in thinking at the retail and tech giant, following a pattern of companies going all-in in AI only to take a step back — especially after facing big bills from “tokenmaxxing”.

This refers to a practice in which users ramp up their use of the technology, often regardless of whether it’s needed. Indeed, tokenmaxxing has been a recurring talking point across 2026 so far, with some companies rapidly accelerating their use of AI.

Uber, for example, was forced to introduce a cap on AI usage after chewing through its entire annual AI budget in just four months. As ITPro reported in late July, Accenture also followed suit, ordering staff to stop using the technology for basic tasks due to skyrocketing costs.

Elsewhere, Microsoft sent a similar memo to its engineers over the summer, telling them to seek value for customers and the business, as “tokenmaxxing is not what we are optimising for.”

AI needs to add value

The memo still makes clear that AI is core to software engineering at Amazon, and a spokesperson told CNBC there was no cap on AI usage at the company.

“We are certain that whatever future best practices are, AI will be at the center of software engineering practice,” the memo notes. “If you haven’t already, you should take the time to learn and apply AI into your daily work as soon as possible.”

However, Amazon also admitted difficulties with its previous attempts to measure AI using “input metrics” like token usage or AI tool adoption, as well as throughput metrics like code changes or reviews.

“We are all aware of how deeply flawed these metrics are, primarily because they are disconnected from what matters,” the memo added, admitting these metrics could be used as a target that would “drive negative outcomes”.

These outcomes include high costs from tokenmaxxing and unnecessary complexity contrary to Amazon’s “invent and simplify” mantra.

That doesn’t mean Amazon isn’t considering metrics, however. Instead, the memo directed managers to consider the bottom tenth of teams when it comes to AI usage as well as the top, to understand why some aren’t using the technology and why others are.

“Deploying AI in your organizations requires carefully balancing between exploring new and better ways to do things and investing in doubling down on the ones you already have,” the memo said.

Amazon called on its engineers to tell the company when AI isn’t useful. “An engineer who can explain where AI does not yet help their work is demonstrating the judgement we are asking for,” the memo notes.

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