Amazon is tightening its internal safeguards following a series of outages affecting its e-commerce operations, including issues linked to its AI coding assistant, Q. Dave Treadwell, SVP of e-commerce services, noted a troubling trend in incidents since the third quarter of 2025, with some recent disruptions attributed to inadequate protections during software updates. This has led to significant data recovery challenges and failures in basic coding mechanisms.
To address these problems, Amazon is implementing stricter controls that require engineers to document code changes thoroughly and obtain additional approvals. These measures aim to introduce “controlled friction” into the code review process and ensure safer software updates. Treadwell emphasized the necessity of combining AI-driven tools with more predictable systems to tackle the inconsistencies inherent in AI-generated code.
Recent notable outages included a March incident where incorrect delivery times caused around 120,000 lost orders, largely due to the involvement of AI tool Q. Another major incident saw a 99% drop in orders across North America, leading to 6.3 million lost orders, primarily due to inadequate documentation during operational changes.
Amazon is rolling out temporary safety guidelines for 90 days, which mandate double reviews of code changes for critical systems. The company is also conducting audits of production code activities. An Amazon spokesperson clarified that AI-related issues do not involve the direct use of AI-generated code, despite the tools being implicated in recent incidents.
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