ELC Annual 2025

More than 25% of all new code at Google is now AI-generated—and that number continues to grow. As AI infiltrates everything from technical interviews to developer workflows, the traditional measures of engineering potential, performance, and productivity are rapidly becoming obsolete. Engineering leaders are under pressure to adapt: redefining roles, skills, and team structures to ensure their organizations are optimally structured to work with, and not against AI. Join Tim Lee, Co-Founder & Chief Learning Officer at CodePath, along with engineering leaders from GitLab and Intuit, for a candid discussion on how AI is fundamentally shifting the role of developers—and next steps for leaders to future-proof their teams. Key Takeaways: Hiring & Evaluating Talent in the AI Era – If AI can cheat through your technical interviews, how do you spot real engineering talent? Redefining Team Structures & Collaboration – What’s left for your teams when AI takes over the grunt work — and how should teams be reorganized around that? Upskilling for an AI-Driven Future - In a world where AI learns faster than we do, what’s the one skill every engineer must master to stay relevant?

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14N84BpXeNrMtjmQ7mDcja_nsWl8rHm_KCkEexctf9JI/preview?slide=id.g3856643605a_0_0 Large language models and agentic tooling are reshaping how software is built, what the “source of truth” is, and how teams operate. In this talk, Silicon Valley veteran Ruslan Belkin shares a leadership lens for this shift—how executive playbooks evolve when context, documentation, and organizational knowledge drive behavior and code becomes the artifact. We’ll explore the implications for product delivery (faster cycles, new failure modes, silent errors), platform choices, and legacy strategy. We’ll also cover hiring in the AI era, capturing tacit human knowledge as critical data, and leading in a mixed user/agent world. Grounded in lessons from startups through public companies, this session offers clear principles for refactoring how you lead, ship, and scale in the AI era.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DZw5PpwHWDYpNDhI9T9edCZ6-sdk8XoHZzeW-fgG79E/preview?slide=id.g38a4d957ed7_0_946 This session addresses the core paradox of AI-era leadership: while AI technology evolves rapidly, self-awareness as the foundation of human leadership becomes MORE critical, not less. As AI handles increasing technical execution, leaders who master self-awareness—understanding their own Leadership OS and upgrading it systematically—will drive innovation and create the foundation for successful AI adoption. The central thesis: AI accelerates technical execution, but self-aware leaders who understand their own decision-making patterns, mental models, and leadership operating system will design better AI-powered teams and thrive in an AI-first world. You will learn: The Core Human Skill: Why self-awareness becomes THE foundational leadership skill in an AI world Leadership OS Framework: Systematic approach to understanding your own decision-making patterns, mental models, and leadership operating system Think-Do-Learn Loop: Practical methodology for continuous leadership improvement and upgrading your Leadership OS Immediate Assessment: Tools to audit your current Leadership OS and identify specific areas for improvement Implementation Path: Concrete steps to start developing greater self-awareness and systematic leadership improvement practices

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fQhWxW3R3EgdYK84H0hGjNInvdVy7gSzMf7wVEwsVJE/preview?slide=id.g376d589082b_0_0 Growth Beyond the Ladder - https://www.jillwetzler.com/resources/growth-beyond-the-ladder As managers, we play a pivotal role in how our direct reports experience growth at work. Yet too often, growth conversations stall due to constraints in the organization: outdated or undefined career frameworks, a shortage of high-profile projects, or limited budgets and hiring freezes. Even when these factors are beyond our control, we have more influence than we think. In this talk, we'll reframe how to support meaningful growth in ways that extend beyond the job ladder. You'll learn how to craft right-sized opportunities that strike the balance between providing guidance and granting autonomy. You’ll be able to identify limiting factors in a direct report’s progress and formulate strategies to address them. And you’ll leave with a structured framework for building concrete, actionable growth plans tailored to each person on your team.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZqaV-11yM4dWFJbaMuI_WnmgNtsRirrdbtaiYe1OUr8/preview?slide=id.g37d67616d81_0_0 As AI rewrites how software is built, it’s not just workflows that are changing — it’s the very definition of what it means to be an engineer. In this moment of profound shift, leaders must navigate more than tool adoption. They must lead through uncertainty, fear, and evolving identity. This session confronts that fear head-on. In this session, Rukmini Reddy (SVP of Engineering, PagerDuty) shares her 4Es leadership framework : Experimentation, Evangelism, Enablement, and Enforcement . This human-first model is designed to foster trust, build fluency, and help engineers win — even in disruption.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GFgjfEB1L3fyDkGJep2HyA3QfiYNq67hPNEfGryp3PA/preview?slide=id.g37d6704a24c_2_76 Nissim Leyani will show you how to teach “product taste” to your engineers—so they build not just functional tools, but delightful, differentiated products that stand out in an AI-saturated world. Mastering Product Taste - Teaching engineers to think beyond code toward delight & differentiation + employ AI to build better products (life360 has interesting mechanisms) + how to level up your team

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1o49SrxI2CSXXu6VLpTAz3sW0HHwHNsP7eOrCHm5E-AQ/preview?slide=id.g3857fd23dc7_0_0 The old playbook is dead (and let's be honest, it wasn't much fun or effective anyway). While you're stuck in endless 1:1s trying to "coach" your team, your competitors are using AI-powered precision to impact 10x more people with 10x less effort. The future belongs to leaders who can identify the exact moment, the exact person, and the exact words that unlock exponential performance. This isn't about doing more. It's about engineering human motivation the way you'd optimize any other system. Learn how to turn leadership from a time sink into a force multiplier, and why the leaders who master micro-interventions will be the only ones left standing. With Jonathan Raymond, Founder & CEO at Ren, Author of Good Authority: How to Become the Leader Your Team is Waiting For.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YRIi6vmocgrXT8d1_j8RwkfJRZ4q_VXg9zQ7adWZaXE/preview?slide=id.g382d98f4d7a_0_0 Vector databases are emerging as a core component of the search stack for agents. In this talk, we will review how language models and agents interact with the external world to search for relevant information, and how vector databases power this interaction.

AI has fundamentally disrupted how we hire, evaluate, and onboard engineering talent. LinkedIn is flooded with AI-generated applications. Coding interviews are compromised by invisible overlays. Meanwhile, top engineers command salaries that put them out of reach for most companies, while many teams struggle with "mercenary" talent juggling multiple clients rather than committed team members. At the same time, engineering leaders are navigating new challenges around remote team dynamics, AI tool adoption within their teams, technical debt management, and balancing innovation speed with engineering excellence. This focused panel brings together seasoned engineering leaders to discuss: The New Hiring Reality: What's broken in 2025 hiring and practical approaches that are actually working Building Committed Teams: Finding dedicated engineers vs. "mercenary" talent in a disrupted market Leading Through AI Disruption: Balancing AI tool adoption with team development and engineering excellence Scaling Smart: Managing growth, technical debt, and budget pressures in uncertain markets

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bhe8JAW0UPcsvw5MtL3Ktr3n_5yiTW5GG79ZTjata5Y/preview?slide=id.g382d824f327_0_0 How do we move beyond tracking surface-level AI metrics to truly understanding its impact on engineering performance? High adoption rates and code completion percentages may look impressive on a dashboard—but do they really translate into better business outcomes? In this immersive session you’ll go past the hype and into the reality of AI-assisted engineering. Blending cutting-edge research with practical tools you can use the very next day, the session is built for engineering leaders and DevProd teams tasked with measuring and maximizing the value of AI tools in engineering. Through interactive exercises and simulated scenarios, you’ll apply the AI Measurement Framework to capture the full picture of AI’s effect on developer experience, team effectiveness, and business results. Attendees will leave with concrete, actionable techniques: specific metrics to rethink, questions to ask their teams, and a framework for making smarter AI tool investments that truly drive developer productivity and organizational performance.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pSYLyRdKmPQfLdnzSRHch4kJSZUa7jKYhw5Qconzs-w/preview?slide=id.g37c71d9037b_0_0 2025 is the year where Datadog is massively investing in AI to transform its products, which requires the cultural transformation of a Product and Engineering organization of 3,000+ persons. In this presentation you will learn what we did to create the necessary sense of urgency, how our development teams use AI in their day to day to improve their productivity, how we help them develop AI features, and how we foster AI innovation in our products.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xCE_lYuqyTg6bQbHaSZ6zkmPlbDIdQ1gzGW0bRArO48/preview?slide=id.g376d5072832_0_0 Reforge CEO Brian Balfour draws on examples from the thousands of product teams Reforge helps train and tool. In this presentation, Brian will reveal the patterns separating the 10% of teams that are truly adopting AI, vs those that are only adopting surface-level.

AI-native tooling is reshaping the rhythm of software development, accelerating iteration, redefining quality, and challenging traditional roles. Join us for a conversation between Harvey's VP of Engineering Ben Liebald and LangChain's Ankush Gola as they explore how their teams and customers prototype, test, and ship faster than ever without losing sight of reliability and rigor. Discover strategies for thriving in a world where the line between prompt and product keeps blurring."

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HE1bm_FKY3P6aoyYJcrxte36JF6vFL5u_ruZSKTTWOU/preview?slide=id.g37b7a276111_0_0 With every vendor claiming AI superiority, engineering leaders need practical frameworks for rapid evaluation and decision-making. Dialpad's Chief AI Officer, Jim Palmer, shares proven approaches for assessing AI tools efficiently without getting trapped in analysis paralysis. This session covers how to evaluate AI solutions against real business needs rather than feature lists, manage stakeholder expectations and organizational FOMO, and build the infrastructure needed for sustainable AI implementation. Learn when to make decisions with imperfect information, how to structure pilots for quick wins or fast failures, and strategies for maintaining momentum while others are still evaluating.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nSUzylYWVeNWlBWfgH6gZgfhiG8RbKKC0vQCCd4_6LQ/preview?slide=id.g376d550d30f_0_0 Loïc Houssier (Head of Engineering @ Superhuman) will share tactics for driving AI adoption (even with skeptical teams), when speed and quality are non-negotiable. Learn how to influence mindset, workflows, and execution under pressure.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BjyS_W695m1-BAgD5rpnU_rw4LnlYZ_6Nd1SgXepCD4/preview?slide=id.g37ccf3e2621_0_615 The seismic shift to an AI-first world means engineering leaders must immediately rethink how and where value is created. Craig McLuckie will share observations from senior leaders embracing an 'AI maximalist' philosophy and provide practical advice for successfully navigating this epoch transition. You will learn how to: Rethink Value Creation: Understand where and how engineering value is created in an AI-first world. Adapt Your Team: Get practical advice on reshaping team structures and roles to work effectively with AI. Adjust Your Processes: Discover new execution practices that integrate generative AI and agents for maximum efficiency. Operationalize AI: Learn how top leaders are successfully moving from AI experimentation to full-scale adoption.

Our company has wholeheartedly embraced the use of AI to work smarter, move faster, and solve problems in new ways. In this talk, I’ll discuss Tilt’s AI adoption journey: what’s worked well, what’s been challenging, and how we’re making sure our AI efforts support real business goals. This session is for engineering leaders who want a practical look at how to start using AI in ways that actually make a difference. You'll get a behind-the-scenes look at: The quarter-by-quarter OKR framework we used to take the organization from initial fear to widespread adoption. The key inflection points that led to a 40% jump in PR velocity in just four weeks. A look at the structured programs that worked, including an "AI Ambassador" program designed to drive bottom-up adoption. How to define and cultivate AI competency as a growth framework for every engineer, from junior to senior.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wbYGrMcURbWWq0VtRHgwIVF4dw8hMgRPgotxOKpeb_0/preview?slide=id.g38862bca826_1_0 Developer productivity is one of the most critical yet misunderstood challenges facing engineering leaders. In this session, Guillermo Manzo, Director of Developer Enablement at Expedia Group, will share how his team built QuADS: a framework that integrates Quality, Accuracy, Delivery, and Satisfaction to create a holistic view of engineering effectiveness. Attendees will learn how QuADS balances technical metrics with developer experience, aligns engineering outcomes with business goals, and provides actionable scorecards to guide decision-making. Walk away with practical insights and a blueprint for elevating productivity in your own organization.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13F_8ZZMC29ct8Fhl_-fQItadT0xFSIxySVnLIykOMuw/preview?slide=id.g37b79f8f80d_0_0 Software delivery has never been faster — the new bottleneck is knowing what to build and delivering it as a complete outcome. In the AI age, buyers won’t purchase tools for teams to master — they’ll buy agent-powered solutions that do the job, with humans setting direction and vision. John Amaral shares how to unite engineering leadership, product vision, and CTO-level technology strategy to thrive in this shift, and provides a practical framework for leading at breakthrough velocity.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RRum-h04Bz5h044O6JoAAd7qxFN78igcQiGrryOSbXI/preview?slide=id.g388a3168856_0_404 The future of products will not be confined to a screen. We are entering an era where interfaces see, hear, speak, and imagine alongside us: powered by multimodal AI. These systems go beyond clicking and tapping, blending vision, voice, and other sensory inputs with rich, dynamic outputs like conversation, imagery, and immersive environments. The interface itself begins to dissolve, giving way to experiences that feel less like using a tool and more like collaborating with a trusted partner. In this talk, we’ll explore how to design the next generation of product interfaces where AI doesn’t just respond, it understands, anticipates, and co-creates in ways that fundamentally reshape how we interact with technology.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15wnbqjHluu3JoecD3OCqwEu3rCwXI8BC8XPaAgVrLBE/preview?slide=id.p1 Most companies approach AI adoption backwards — adding features first, culture second. At Amplitude, we flipped the script. In just five days, we transformed 200+ product builders from AI skeptics to AI-native practitioners, achieving 40% productivity gains and cutting months-long projects to weeks. This isn't another hackathon story—it's a blueprint for how leaders can create the space, pressure, and vulnerability needed to shift entire organizations from watching AI happen to making it happen. Learn the specific tactics that worked, what surprised us most, and why the real transformation started after the week ended.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DhUIPlQ3EgY5AFyinHrVYIUDOZzWAR958BdHKuw-tP4/preview?slide=id.g382d4ab68f2_0_0 A practical guide to building AI agents that goes beyond the hype. Learn Malte's three-phase development approach, as well as his POV on agent architecture, security considerations, and technical stack requirements on the path from "works sometimes" to "fewer mistakes than humans".

In less than a decade, OpenAI evolved from a pure research lab into the fastest-growing product in history, scaling from 100 million to 700 million weekly users. This transformation required building an engineering function and culture from scratch, blurring the boundaries between research, product, and infrastructure. Sulman Choudhry, Head of ChatGPT Engineering, shares the organizational design choices, hiring shifts, and cultural bets that enabled unprecedented shipping velocity. He’ll cover what happens when domains collide, how to balance senior talent with AI-native interns, and the real-time architecture changes behind major launches like ChatGPT Images. This is a candid look at the patterns, anti-patterns, and opportunity zones that emerge when you scale AI products at breakneck speed.

This fireside chat is a candid conversation on how AI is reshaping developer productivity and making engineering leaders more effective with Arvind Jain. The discussion will cover practical strategies for adopting AI, what metrics matter, and how leaders can build organizations that are ready for what’s next. In this session, you'll get insights into: Where the first real, measurable wins are happening (and what’s years away) How AI can act as a force multiplier for strategic decision making (without adding noise) How AI is accelerating decision-making & enabling more consistent distributed leadership Future cultural shifts, KPIs & how to avoid chasing hype and drive durable, long-term value

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Y-FGLBs1K4F3nn21dn5kzEYzE_jnYcJYQ0uqMyT-ev0/preview?slide=id.g37c8a22c173_1_0 This session explores how AI is reshaping engineering organizations from the bottom up. Drawing on real examples from WorkOS, we’ll look at different engineering personas, how their motivations shape their response to AI, and the cultural and structural pressures that follow. You’ll leave with a practical framework for understanding AI’s impact on your teams and strategies for creating the conditions where bottom-up evolution can thrive.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15X1X2iPJaxGp9LvjkH_os6V2FWLHvSENd8jWEixhUkU/preview?slide=id.g3887d179bda_0_0 We’ll explore: • how to mitigate excessive hallucinations in code‑generating models; • how to incorporate testing into the SDLC so it reduces (not increases) engineering time; and • common ways companies underutilize AI—and how to leverage it to accelerate delivery.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ilg4qj6i_dwCgkeHGp0qwr3jHGjGT64hUzbZm_fBzl0/preview?slide=id.g3887d179aa0_0_0 As a startup, your one large advantage is speed. Yet it can be a huge cost if used inappropriately. In this talk, we'll discuss rational, and deliberate tradeoffs you as a leader can make to choose speed where appropriate. I'll share decision making frameworks, strategies, and mental models for when to optimize for speed, how to do so in a constructive, responsible way, and how to use it to create real, tangible business and product momentum.

Everything we thought we knew about building great products is changing… or is it? Developers and designers are staying in sync and working more efficiently than ever before with tools like Figma’s Dev Mode. At the same time, new research shows that AI is blurring the boundaries between disciplines across the team. Yet as collaboration deepens and roles broaden, domain expertise isn’t disappearing—it remains essential to building great products. How can teams hone their respective skills while embracing a more collaborative product development process? Join Figma’s Marcel Weekes and Andrew Hogan for a conversation about what these shifts mean for product teams and how leaders can embrace a more collaborative, AI-enabled future.

Traditional AI lived on simple benchmarks: accuracy, precision, BLEU scores. Generative AI broke that mold. Now, outputs are open-ended, there’s no unique gold standards, and as GenAI has been industrialized, neither datasets nor evaluation suites are shared across vendors. In this session, we’ll look at the science and strategy of evaluation in this new era: how to balance human adjudication with automated metrics, how Goodhart’s Law plays out in practice, and how evaluation itself shapes product development. Drawing on examples from healthcare, we’ll show why getting evaluation right isn’t just an academic concern, it’s the foundation for building products that customers can trust.

Slide deck available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CF8RQfzika3KBv9kSCZB7ehcwVT8WEH-P3gpGDN31EU/preview?slide=id.g37b79fa8518_0_0 AI has become an operating metric—now tracked alongside revenue, user growth, and backlog in quarterly reports. This keynote examines how engineering leadership must adapt as the industry shifts from building user-facing applications to architecting systems around autonomous agents, APIs, and real-time orchestration. With compute emerging as a supply-chain constraint, regulatory frameworks lagging, and investors prioritizing measurable adoption over technical demos, the demands on engineering leaders are changing fast. This session explores the key trends driving the AI-first transition—and what they mean for the future of technical leadership.