Why AWS CEO Matt Garman Says Replacing Junior Developers with AI Is a Mistake (2025)

Tech companies racing to cut costs by replacing junior developers with AI are making a strategic error. AWS CEO Matt Garman called this approach "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard." His reasoning reveals why short-term thinking about AI could damage businesses for years to come.

The Push to Replace Junior Talent

Companies across the tech industry are exploring ways to reduce headcount using AI tools. Junior developers often appear as easy targets. They handle routine tasks. They require training. They cost money.

This logic seems sound on the surface. AI coding assistants can generate boilerplate code. Large language models can write documentation. Automated tools can handle testing. Why pay someone to do what machines can do faster?

Garman, speaking on WIRED's The Big Interview podcast, explained why this thinking is fundamentally flawed. His perspective carries weight. AWS serves everyone from Netflix to U.S. intelligence agencies. Garman has a front-row seat to how companies actually use AI in practice.

Junior Developers Often Master AI Tools Faster

The first reason Garman gave challenges a common assumption. Many leaders believe senior developers will get more value from AI tools. The opposite is often true.

"My experience is that many of the most junior folks are actually the most experienced with the AI tools. So they're actually most able to get the most out of them."

Fresh graduates have grown up with new technology. They adapt quickly to AI-powered development environments. Many learn these tools while studying or during internships. They explore new features, discover efficient methods, and figure out how to extract maximum value from AI assistants.

The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey supports this observation. 55.5% of early-career developers reported using AI tools daily in their development process. This rate exceeds that of experienced developers.

Senior developers have established workflows built over years or decades. Adopting new tools means changing habits. This takes time and effort. Research from IWG shows that over half of Gen Z employees are actually helping senior colleagues upskill in AI. The students are teaching the teachers.

Companies replacing junior developers lose the employees best positioned to leverage AI effectively.

Cost Optimization Math Does Not Support This Strategy

Garman's second point addresses the financial logic directly.

"They're usually the least expensive because they're right out of college, and they generally make less. So if you're thinking about cost optimization, they're not the only people you would want to optimize around."

Junior employees receive lower salaries and benefits than senior staff. Removing them does not deliver significant savings compared to other cost-reduction options. A single senior developer's salary might equal three or four junior salaries.

If cost reduction is the goal, junior employees should not be the default target. True optimization requires examining the entire organization. There are many places where expenses can be trimmed more effectively.

The data reinforces this point. According to a ResumeBuilder survey, many companies that laid off workers expecting savings ended up increasing expenses. Many had to rehire later, often at higher rates. The hidden costs of recruitment, onboarding, and lost institutional knowledge add up quickly.

Breaking the Talent Pipeline Creates Long-Term Damage

Garman's third reason looks beyond quarterly reports to long-term consequences.

"At some point, that whole thing explodes on itself. If you have no talent pipeline that you're building and no junior people that you're mentoring and bringing up through the company, we often find that that's where we get some of the best ideas."

Think of a company like a sports team. If you only keep veteran players and never recruit rookies, what happens when those veterans retire? You end up with no one who knows how to play the game.

Hiring people straight out of college brings new perspectives into the workplace. They carry fresh ideas shaped by the latest trends. They bring motivation to innovate. They question assumptions that veterans take for granted.

More importantly, junior developers form the foundation of a company's future workforce. Stopping junior hiring cuts off the talent pipeline entirely. Over time, this leads to fewer leaders available for internal promotion.

A Deloitte report on the tech talent outlook notes that the tech workforce is expected to grow at roughly twice the rate of the overall U.S. workforce. This highlights the demand for tech talent. Without a strong pipeline of junior developers coming in, companies face a growing tech talent shortage.

When there are not enough junior hires being trained today, teams struggle to fill roles tomorrow. This becomes especially problematic as projects scale.

How Developer Roles Will Actually Change

Garman does not deny that AI will transform software development. He predicts significant changes within two to three years.

"I do think the part of the job that you probably are not going to have to do two or three years from now is authoring Java code. That is probably not a job that's going to exist because these tools are going to be really good at authoring Java code."

But developers will not disappear. Their focus will shift.

"Deconstructing a problem, deciding what to go in and build, pulling it together, looking at the Java code that comes back and deciding it's not quite exactly what you want... coordinating a bunch of agents, that is going to be more a job that a software developer is."

Writing code becomes less central. Understanding problems, designing solutions, and directing AI agents becomes more central. The skills change. The need for human developers does not.

AWS has already seen rapid AI adoption internally. Roughly 80% of AWS developers now use AI in some form. They write unit tests, generate documentation, and speed up coding tasks. That number rises each week.

Skills That Will Matter in an AI-Driven Future

Garman offered advice on what skills developers should cultivate.

"How do you think for yourself? How do you develop critical reasoning of solving problems? How do you develop creativity? How do you develop a learning mindset that you're going to go learn to do the next thing?"

These are not technical skills in the traditional sense. They are thinking skills. Problem decomposition. Critical evaluation. Creative approaches. Continuous learning.

Geoffrey Hinton, the AI pioneer and Turing Award winner, has advised that Computer Science degrees remain valuable. Fresh talent with strong fundamentals becomes necessary for filling higher-value roles of the future. The foundation matters even as the tools change.

A Realistic View of the Transition

Garman acknowledges uncertainty in the short term. "Your job is going to change," he said. The next few years will bring disruption.

But his long-term view is positive. AI will make companies more productive. It will make employees more productive. When technology makes something easier, people want more of it.

AI enables faster software creation. Companies can develop more products, enter new markets, and serve more customers. This creates demand for more work, which creates demand for more workers.

"I'm very confident in the medium to longer term that AI will definitely create more jobs than it removes at first," Garman said.

Not everyone shares this optimism. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that entry-level jobs are squarely "in the crosshairs" of automation. The debate continues.

What This Means for Organizations

Companies making workforce decisions about AI should consider Garman's perspective carefully. Short-term cost savings from cutting junior roles may create long-term strategic damage.

Junior developers bring AI fluency that senior staff often lack. They cost less than the alternatives for cost optimization. They represent the future leadership pipeline. Eliminating them eliminates options.

The smarter approach treats AI as a tool that amplifies human capability rather than replaces it. Train junior developers to use AI effectively. Let them teach senior staff. Build the talent pipeline while building AI capability.

The companies that thrive will be those that invest in both technology and people. Choosing one over the other is a false choice. And according to the CEO of the world's largest cloud platform, choosing to cut junior talent is one of the dumbest choices you can make.