Why do some teams see massive speedups from AI coding agents while others barely notice a difference? In this RedMonk New Builders Conversation with AWS, Kate Holterhoff talks with Liam Greenamyre, Principal PM of Developer Platforms at AWS, about the uneven impact of AI on software development and how to restructure work so agents can succeed. Liam explains why making tasks verifiable is the single biggest lever, then walks through the Agent Toolkit for AWS: a remote MCP server, 100+ skills, plugins, and a rules file that work with Claude Code, Codex, Kiro, and more. They dig into how a single RunScript tool covers 15,000+ AWS APIs token-efficiently, how IAM context keys separate human and agent actions, how agents discover new services like Aurora DSQL, and why isolated dev accounts make safe sandboxes for autonomous agents. Liam closes with a bold prediction: the biggest changes ahead are organizational, not technological.
This New Builders conversation is sponsored by AWS.
Show notes: https://redmonk.com/videos/liam-greenamyre/
Chapters
00:04 Introduction to AI in Software Development
03:07 The Uneven Adoption of AI in Development Teams
06:20 Strategies for Successful AI Integration
10:09 Exploring the AWS Agent Toolkit
17:01 Guardrails and Context for AI Agents
20:10 The Impact of AI on FinOps and Cost Management
24:28 Evolution of Agent Tooling
32:17 Enhancing Discoverability in AWS
35:56 Guardrails and Safety in AWS Operations
41:03 Future of AI in Software Development
