Amazon Taps Microsoft AI Expert to Enhance Coding and Work Tools

Pedram Rezaei, a long-time Microsoft engineering leader and former Copilot chief technology officer, has made the move to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to contribute to its AI tools for coding and workplace productivity.

With nearly two decades of experience at Microsoft, Rezaei was most recently a corporate vice president on the Microsoft Superintelligence team. He now joins AWS as a distinguished engineer in the Agentic AI and Emerging Technologies organization, under the leadership of Swami Sivasubramanian.

In his new role, Rezaei will initially focus on Kiro, AWS’s coding tool, and Quick, Amazon’s AI assistant for workplace tasks, according to a memo from Sivasubramanian to his team. The memo highlights Rezaei’s hands-on approach to engineering and his commitment to staying actively involved in coding on a daily basis.

Noting the growth in user adoption of Kiro and Quick, the memo outlines Rezaei’s early plans to integrate into the team, understand the AWS environment, and deliver tangible results. Sivasubramanian’s organization expanded in July to encompass emerging technologies as part of Amazon’s broader AI team restructuring.

The competition between Amazon and Microsoft in the AI tools space for work continues to intensify. Microsoft recently unveiled the Copilot app, integrating chat, coding, and agents as a response to OpenAI and Anthropic, while Amazon rolled out the Quick desktop app and extended its key features to mobile devices.

Rezaei’s tenure at Microsoft, which began in 2006, included senior technical roles on various projects such as Power BI, Dynamics 365, Cortana, Bing, and Azure Maps before his transition to Copilot. His LinkedIn profile indicates his progression to become Copilot’s CTO in February and later joining the Microsoft Superintelligence team. Sivasubramanian’s memo mentions Rezaei’s recent focus on training foundation models.

Microsoft has been contacted for comment on Rezaei’s departure, marking his move to AWS as the latest in a series of executive transitions between the two tech giants. Shawn Bice returned to AWS in May from a security role at Microsoft to lead its Automated Reasoning Group.

In the same memo, Sivasubramanian announced the return of two longtime AWS engineers, Marvin Theimer and Reto Kramer, who came back from Microsoft to work on neurosymbolic AI and automated reasoning, described as a significant focus for AWS’s future endeavors.

Neurosymbolic AI combines large language models with rule-based systems to ensure AI adherence to company policies and procedures.