World Congress 2026 Europe • Jul 9, 2026 • Session details

It's a Great Time to be a Builder: Leveraging AI for Good

Seth Webster

When his father was locked-in by Parkinson’s, Seth Webster built a custom communication tool in hours. Discover why AI makes human judgment and ambition our most critical developer skills.

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#1 about 6 min

Leveraging frameworks for critical life solutions

A personal story reveals the profound impact of using existing frameworks to quickly build a communication tool during a family health crisis.

#2 about 2 min

Navigating current industry shifts and AI anxiety

Rapid AI model releases and industry layoffs create uncertainty, but developers are actually gaining tremendous leverage rather than being replaced.

#3 about 2 min

Shrinking the gap between ideas and production

The chasm from initial concept to a deployed application has collapsed from months to weeks due to powerful declarative and visual tools.

#4 about 2 min

Relying on human judgment and taste over boilerplate

As generating boilerplate and basic database operations becomes trivial, developer value shifts entirely toward human judgment and distinguishing what not to build.

#5 about 3 min

Moving beyond demos to build production-ready software

Generating impressive but fragile AI prototypes is easy, but modern teams must focus on the rigorous work of building scalable, production-ready software.

#6 about 1 min

Prioritizing ambition in the AI-assisted software era

When building and distributing applications takes mere minutes, the scarcest industry resource becomes the ambition to chase transformative, world-changing ideas.

#7 about 3 min

Setting ambitious goals to drive technological progress

The historical example of the Apollo moonshot demonstrates how audacious visions naturally rally diverse teams and spur necessary technological inventions.

#8 about 3 min

Embracing the role of an ambitious software finisher

A true builder combines strong taste with powerful tooling to execute on massive ideas and grind through the hardest parts of finalizing legacy software.

#9 about 3 min

Grounding AI tools in shared team principles

Strategies and perspectives are shared for effectively grounding AI agents in established team contexts so they can consistently intermediate and support safe engineering decisions.

Matching moments

2:59 min

Building developer credibility beyond AI tools

Josh Bentley Josh Bentley · World Congress 2026 North America

2:44 min

Investing in engineering craftsmanship to maintain a competitive edge

Laura Thorson Laura Thorson · World Congress 2026 Europe

1:01 min

The enduring relevance of developer experience in the AI era

Artem Mukhin Artem Mukhin · World Congress 2026 North America

1:21 min

Using artificial intelligence to reimagine developer experience

Alexander Trusheim Alexander Trusheim +1 · World Congress 2025

1:31 min

Addressing developer burnout and the impact of artificial intelligence

Pauline Pagliaro Pauline Pagliaro · World Congress 2025

5:16 min

Motivations for adopting AI to enhance developer productivity