KW Roundtable: AI in Engineering Teams — Decisions You're Making Right Now

KW Roundtable: AI in Engineering Teams — Decisions You're Making Right Now

Every engineering leader is navigating some version of the same questions right now: which AI tools are worth adopting, how to get real traction with your team, how to talk about it with leadership, and what it actually changes about how you do your job. Some of your peers are deep in. Others are deliberately holding back. Most are somewhere in between and figuring it out as they go.

This is an opportunity to network with engineering leaders in Kitchener-Waterloo and share real experiences — what you've tried, what's worked, what hasn't, and what you're still wrestling with in a roundtable format. Come prepared with a specific challenge or question you're facing right now.

Topics for the AI in Engineering Teams theme will include:

Adoption & Rollout Getting AI tools into your team's hands is one thing. Getting meaningful adoption is another. What's worked — hackathons, champions, pairing sessions, letting it happen organically? What's flopped? For those still early in, what's behind that and is it a deliberate choice?

How AI Is Changing Engineering Leadership Decisions Beyond the tools themselves, how is AI shifting the way you think about hiring, code review, estimation, junior developer growth, and team structure? What's surprised you? What hasn't changed as much as you expected?

Managing Executive Expectations How are you handling pressure to quantify AI's impact on productivity? How do you set realistic expectations without underselling the opportunity or overpromising results?

Organized by local leader: Sasha Hall, Engineering Manager @ Planitar, Makers of iGUIDE