strAIght talk: AI tips for Amazonians

Amazon's internal builder tools team is reimagining how software gets built with agentic AI at the core. A Senior Principal Engineer explains how an orchestrating agent now manages dozens of parallel coding tasks, and why customer obsession is still the one thing that doesn't change.

Guest: James Hood, Senior Principal Engineer, Amazon Software Builder Experience (ASBX)

Disclaimer: Some tools referenced in this episode (including Agent Spaces and Project Agent) may only be accessible to Amazon employees.

Recorded with a live audience during Amazon's Bring Your Parents to Work Day — with her "80 going on 60 year old" dad in the front row — VP Candi Castleberry tells the story of the app she built in one evening to help her sisters care for their mom. She draws the line between AI and agentic AI, shares what she calls "dancing with AI," and lands on the one question that moved her from watching to building. Proof that curiosity is the only prerequisite — at any age.
Guest: Candi Castleberry, VP, Amazon eXperience & Upskilling (AXU)

Alexa for Shopping combines product expertise with personal context to help customers find, compare, and buy what they need. A Senior Manager on the team explains the AI behind the experience and where it's headed next.

Guest: Brandon Knapp, Sr. Manager Product Manager Technical, Alexa for Shopping

What if your documents got VP-level feedback before the actual review? On this episode of strAIght talk, hear how one builder turned a decade of leadership feedback into an AI-powered review tool now used by over a thousand colleagues each week.

Guest: Isabela Huggins, Sr. Manager, Ops & Enablement, Global Logistics

Beth Galetti, SVP of People Experience and Technology, hadn't written code in 25 years. Then she built a live website with AI on a transatlantic flight and challenged every person in her organization to build something in two hours or less. Over 1,000 did.

Guest: Beth Galetti, SVP, People Experience and Technology, Amazon