Pair Programming with Generative Agents: Refactoring Legacy Android at Speed

We’ve all heard the promise of AI affecting how we code, but what does it look like in the trenches of a real-world refactor? In this talk, I walk through the transformation of “Upnext,” an established Android codebase, achieved through deep collaboration with an advanced AI agent (“Antigravity”).

We didn’t just generate boilerplate. We tackled complex architectural shifts: migrating to Type-Safe Navigation 3, implementing Adaptive layouts with ListDetailPaneScaffold, and modernizing a broken CI/CD pipeline. I will demonstrate how agentic AI can act as a true pair programmer—debugging obscure Hilt/KSP conflicts, writing robust Fastlane scripts, and essentially “un-breaking” the build. Come see the future of workflow, where the developer directs the symphony and the AI handles the heavy lifting of modernization.