As AI handles more of the coding, the role of a software engineer is shifting from writing code to planning and reviewing the work of AI agents. This talk explores the implications of this shift, the new workflows it demands, and the tools required to manage them effectively.
Max Schoening, Head of Product at Notion, discusses how AI is reshaping software development. He argues that agency—the drive to effect change—is now more critical than specific skills, as AI makes the first 10% of any project 'free'. Schoening introduces his 'tiny core' theory for great products, debates the 'SaaSpocalypse', and emphasizes the growing importance of software quality and taste in an era of exploding software quantity.
Martin Keen explains that context, not model intelligence, is the biggest bottleneck in AI. He introduces Context Engineering, its four pillars (Connected Access, Knowledge Layer, Precision Retrieval, Runtime Governance), and advanced techniques like GraphRAG to build more reliable, context-aware AI systems.
Yaser Al, founder of Chatbase, shares his journey of bootstrapping the company from a side project to a $10M ARR business. He details his product-led growth strategy, the evolution of the tech stack from early RAG to a multi-model harness, and his vision for AI agents as 'Chief Customer Officers'.
This talk outlines the challenges of AI pricing, where traditional SaaS models fail due to unpredictable compute costs and margin pressure. It presents a five-step framework for developing a successful hybrid pricing strategy, emphasizing value alignment, customer trust, and rapid iteration as key competitive advantages.
Dmitri Dolgov, co-CEO of Waymo, discusses the 20-year journey from the DARPA challenge to full autonomy. He explains the Waymo Foundation Model—a multimodal world action model powering the driver, simulator, and critic—and how their "end-to-end plus" architecture enables superhuman safety and exponential scaling.