Quick Summary
- 1Amplitude, a publicly traded analytics company, has invested tens of millions of dollars in a comprehensive AI transformation, acquiring five startups since October 2024.
- 2CEO Spenser Skates overcame his initial skepticism of the AI industry, which he once viewed as full of 'grifters,' to fully commit to becoming an 'AI native' company.
- 3The overhaul included hiring an AI-savvy engineering head, running a company-wide 'AI week,' and providing tools like Cursor and GitHub Copilot to all employees.
- 4Following the transformation, developer productivity increased by 40%, and AI tool usage among employees grew from 14 to 174 active users in just nine months.
Quick Summary
A long banner hangs in Amplitude's San Francisco office with a stark, unambiguous message: "NO MAGICAL THINKING." It’s not a critique of literature, but a daily reminder for employees that technology can never replace deep thinking and hard work.
This philosophy is at the heart of the analytics company's ambitious and costly transformation. After years of plateauing stock prices and internal skepticism, Amplitude has gone "all in" on artificial intelligence, investing tens of millions of dollars to reinvent its business for the AI age.
A Skeptic's Journey
In 2023 and early 2024, Spenser Skates, Amplitude's CEO, was a vocal AI skeptic. He viewed the booming industry as populated by "grifters," visionaries promising to solve world hunger, and salesmen claiming to automate everything. "It had all sorts of problems," Skates admitted.
His perspective shifted dramatically by mid-2024. He realized a breakthrough in the analytics space was imminent, likely within the next two to three years. Faced with this reality, Skates made a decisive choice.
"We've got to go make that ourselves. So, we went all in."
This commitment marked the beginning of a rapid and comprehensive overhaul for the 800-person public company, aiming to become what the industry calls "AI native."
"We've got to go make that ourselves. So, we went all in."— Spenser Skates, CEO
The AI Overhaul
The transformation began with two strategic moves. First, Skates hired Wade Chambers as the new chief engineering officer in October 2024. Chambers, who had advised the company since 2016, brought a history of leadership roles at Twitter and Included Health. Upon his arrival, only 1% of the engineering, product, and design teams were actively using AI.
The second move was a series of acquisitions. Starting with Command AI in October 2024, Amplitude quickly added June, Kraftful, and Inari to its portfolio. The most recent acquisition, InfiniGrow, was announced on January 14, 2026.
Among the acquired founders was Yana Welinder, CEO of Kraftful. After discovering Amplitude's then-Chief Product Officer was a power user of her product, she reached out. The deal closed in July, and Welinder was named Amplitude's head of AI. Her first mission was to accelerate the company's pace, noting that while Kraftful shipped weekly, Amplitude shipped less than monthly.
Winning Over the Team
Convincing employees to embrace new tools proved to be the harder challenge. Many engineers, like their CEO had been, were skeptical of the AI hype and concerned about potential job losses. Skates noted that a bottoms-up approach was key to dissipating this skepticism.
In June, Chambers organized a week-long, company-wide event called "AI Week," taking the entire engineering, product, and design team offline. The event was modeled after Facebook's famous mobile push. To kick it off, leaders were required to "vibe-code" a project live in front of the entire company.
"It didn't go well,"
Chambers said of the live demonstration. "They had to work through it. They had to re-prompt a couple of different ways." Despite the hiccups, the message stuck. Leaders who weren't professional coders were able to build something "pretty cool" within an hour.
Momentum was further fueled by "zealots"—engineers passionate about the new technology, some of whom Chambers brought from his previous job. These early adopters led by example, demonstrating the practical value of the tools to their peers.
Measurable Results
The investment and cultural shift have yielded significant, measurable returns. Amplitude provided employees with licenses for tools like Cursor and GitHub Copilot, and the adoption data tells a clear story.
In the final week of March, only 14 employees were actively using Cursor. By the first week of December—after AI Week but before the holiday slowdown—that number had skyrocketed to 174 employees.
The impact on productivity has been profound. According to Chambers, developer productivity shot up by 40% and has remained at that level. On some specific engineering teams, the gains were even more dramatic, reaching as high as 300-400%.
As Chambers noted, "Increasingly, even the most cynical team members have come around." The transformation, which Skates estimated could cost over $100 million, appears to be paying off, proving that even the most skeptical minds can be changed with the right strategy and tools.
Looking Ahead
Amplitude's journey from AI skeptic to industry leader offers a compelling blueprint for other white-collar businesses navigating the same shift. The company's success demonstrates that becoming "AI native" is less about magical thinking and more about strategic investment, cultural change, and hands-on experimentation.
With a new leadership team, a portfolio of AI-focused acquisitions, and a workforce increasingly fluent in AI tools, Amplitude is positioned to redefine the analytics landscape. As Skates predicted, the industry is on the cusp of a breakthrough—and Amplitude is betting it will be the one to lead it.
"If you have this cadence of shipping infrequently, then the team slows down, which isn't appropriate in the age of AI."— Yana Welinder, Head of AI
"Analytics will look very different 6 months from now. We have the opportunity to be the AI native company in Analytics and we are going to pull every piece of firepower we have."— Spenser Skates, CEO
"It didn't go well. They had to work through it. They had to re-prompt a couple of different ways."— Wade Chambers, Chief Engineering Officer
"Increasingly, even the most cynical team members have come around."— Wade Chambers, Chief Engineering Officer
Frequently Asked Questions
Amplitude, a public analytics company, has invested tens of millions of dollars to become an 'AI native' business. This involved acquiring five AI startups, hiring new leadership, and overhauling its engineering culture with new tools and training.
The company used a bottoms-up approach, including a week-long 'AI Week' where the entire engineering team went offline to experiment. Leaders demonstrated live coding, and passionate 'zealot' engineers led by example, which helped convince skeptical colleagues of AI's practical value.
The results have been significant. Developer productivity increased by 40% and has remained at that level, with some teams seeing gains as high as 400%. Employee adoption of AI tools also grew from 14 active users to 174 in nine months.
Initially skeptical of AI 'grifters,' CEO Spenser Skates realized by mid-2024 that a major breakthrough in the analytics space was imminent. He decided the company needed to lead that breakthrough itself rather than risk being left behind.
