AI tools are transforming the way software gets written, but not always in the ways teams expect. Behind the hype, there’s a more practical truth emerging: AI doesn’t replace developers; it amplifies them. It accelerates good engineering decisions, and it accelerates bad ones even faster. Used well, AI becomes the most tireless junior developer you’ve ever hired. Used poorly, it becomes the fastest tech-debt generator your organization has ever seen.

In this session, we’ll explore what AI actually does well in software development today, where it falls short, and what engineering leaders should (and shouldn’t) be doing about it. We’ll look at the difference between greenfield and brownfield usage, why AI struggles as codebases grow, how to safely pair AI with junior and senior developers, and how to set guardrails that keep teams productive without introducing new risks.

Whether you're a developer, architect, or decision-maker, this talk will help you build an AI-augmented engineering team that ships faster, maintains quality, and avoids the pitfalls organizations are already discovering the hard way. Before you restructure your team around AI, invest in new tools, or assume AI can replace expertise, come hear what you actually need to know.