It took them eight episodes, but Si and Neil finally tackle AI. No future predictions (well, almost), no hot takes, just two engineering managers sharing what they're actually doing with these tools, what's surprised them, and what still makes them nervous.

They cover using LLMs as thinking partners, the difference between AI that writes code and AI that helps you engineer better, agentic tools and what happens when you give them real access, and why good engineering practices might matter more now, not less. Oh, and they do make some predictions at the end. They'll probably be wrong. That's kind of the point.

Timestamped to April 2026. This will be outdated by the time you listen to it.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 - Illness, delays and finally talking about AI
• 04:32 - Framing it: LLMs vs AI as a broader term
• 06:09 - How Si and Neil are using AI day to day
• 12:41 - AI baked into everything: Copilot, Confluence and the Microsoft rebrand
• 16:24 - The accelerant problem: AI amplifies what's already there
• 19:38 - Industry noise, AI fatigue and working out the real value
• 30:06 - Agentic AI: what it is and why it changes things
• 34:01 - What they've learned from using LLMs (tips for getting started)
• 50:07 - Predictions: AI in engineering this time next year
• 53:32 - The future of EMs, QA and small teams

USEFUL LINKS

Dave Farley - Modern Software Engineering (Continuous Delivery): https://www.youtube.com/c/ContinuousDelivery

Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com

Cursor (AI code editor): https://www.cursor.com

GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

Claude (Anthropic): https://claude.ai

OpenClaw (agentic AI tool): https://openclau.ai

Notion AI: https://www.notion.com/product/ai

CONNECT WITH US

Si Jobling - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sijobling/

Neil Younger - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilyounger/

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

CREDITS

Produced by Unstyled Studios.

Artwork by Si.

Edited in Descript.

Hosted on Pinecast.

Support Managing Engineers by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/managingengineers

Find out more at http://podcast.managingengineers.net

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