As AI reshapes the work of software teams and brings both opportunities and uncertainties, ensuring high-quality delivery becomes even more essential. This session shows how to adopt AI-first practices while keeping developers in control and aligned with the engineering principles that support effective delivery. Using real examples based on the RIPER-5 model, a specification-driven design approach, the talk demonstrates how to merge the potential of AI with already established practices to create balanced, reliable and developer-centered workflows. Participants will walk away with a practical roadmap to cut through the hype, maintain human oversight and integrate AI in ways that deliver real value.
Speaker
Wes Reisz
Technical Principal @Thoughtworks, 16-Time QCon Chair, & Creator of The InfoQ Podcast
With over 20 years of delivering and architecting sociotechnical systems, Wesley Reisz has led the technical delivery of multi-million dollar software projects, chaired numerous software conferences across North America (and the United Kingdom), created a highly respected podcast, and spent over a decade teaching 400-level software architecture/programming courses as an adjunct professor. These experiences have given him deep expertise in software architecture, cloud-native engineering, team topologies, and platform thinking (alongside a broad knowledge of different software domains).
Wes is a Technical Principal at Thoughtworks, where he specializes in reducing complexity in software through systems thinking, application modernization, platform engineering, and AI-First Software Delivery. Embodying the concept of a T-shaped engineer (blending broad expertise across a wide range of software domains with deep technical knowledge of the cloud-native ecosystem), Wes strongly believes in the transformative power of sharing knowledge through speaking, teaching, and continuous learning.
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