Software Development Superstream: AI-Assisted Software Delivery

Schedule

The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.

Introduction – Sam Newman (5 minutes)

• Sam Newman welcomes you to the Software Development Superstream.

Fireside Chat with Birgitta Böckeler (35 minutes)

• Birgitta Böckeler is the global lead for AI-assisted software delivery at Thoughtworks and regularly shares practical reality checks for working with AI. Join Birgitta and Sam for a conversation about the realities of AI-assisted software delivery and get your questions answered.

Navigating the Impact of AI, Developer Experience, and Communities on Software Security – Joseph Katsioloudes (35 minutes)

• Discover the impact of AI, developer experience (DevEx), and communities on software security through real-world examples derived from securely building GitHub using GitHub. Joseph Katsioloudes, a leading voice in cybersecurity and AI, provides valuable insights into the dynamic interplay between these three transformative forces, paving the way for a new era in software development and, consequently, for software security.

Break (5 minutes)

Removing the AI Bottleneck: How Autonomous Validation Scales Software Delivery – Olaf Molenveld (Sponsored by CircleCI) (30 minutes)

• AI coding assistants have shattered the symmetry of software delivery. Developers can generate code 10x faster, but testing and validation haven’t kept pace—creating a bottleneck that’s quietly eroding AI’s productivity gains. Olaf Molenveld of CircleCI explores how autonomous validation can restore balance to AI-accelerated delivery pipelines, enabling teams to ship faster with confidence. Whether you’re struggling with test debt from AI-generated code or planning your validation infrastructure for an AI-first development future, you’ll leave with concrete approaches to removing the AI bottleneck from your delivery pipelines.

This session will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A in a breakout room. Stop by if you have more questions for Olaf.

Human-Driven Intelligence: Where AI and Automation Fall Short – Pia Wiedermayer (35 minutes)

• The testing landscape is currently dominated by an AI-first mandate that often prioritizes hype over foundational strategy. Industry promises that AI technologies will fix testing, but executing flawed tests faster is not an improvement. Pia Wiedermayer, founder of Itacama GmbH, highlights why automation should be viewed as a collaborative integration rather than a replacement for human-driven intelligence. You’ll explore the realistic limits of AI tools and walk away with the insight you need to lead informed discussions about the true capabilities and complexities of AI within the software quality assurance lifecycle.

Break (5 minutes)

AI Agents Need Permission Slips – Heather Downing (35 minutes)

• MCP servers connect AI agents to enterprise systems, but most examples aren't specific about what they have access to—they just assume you know. This works until your assistant decides to reorganize your file system or email your entire customer database. Giving AI agents broad permissions is like giving a toddler car keys. Heather Downing explores authorization for AI workflows beyond role-based access control (RBAC) and discusses dynamic permission scoping, context-aware authorization, and most important, human approval gates for dangerous operations. You’ll learn to build agentic workflows that are useful enough to deploy but constrained enough to trust with production data.

AI Works, Pull Requests Don’t: How AI Is Breaking the SDLC and What To Do About It (35 minutes) – Michael Webster

• Join CircleCI engineer Michael Webster to explore how the shift from AI-assisted coding to autonomous agents strains the modern development lifecycle and individual workflows. Michael examines why rigorous practices like TDD and trunk-based development are now critical for managing increased code output and navigating nondeterministic tools. By prioritizing faster feedback loops and foundational principles like abstraction and simplicity, you can evolve your engineering discipline to obviate complexity in an era of infinite code hypotheses.

Closing Remarks – Sam Newman (5 minutes) Sam Newman closes out today’s event.