A virtual conference packed with sessions on the intersection of software engineering and AI. Let's take a look at this year's conference.

AI Native DevCon is the conference subdivision of the AI Native Dev organization. It is an organization that aims to foster innovation by helping developers to adopt AI effectively in their engineering work; from speeding up coding and debugging to automating repetitive tasks.

This year it took place on May 13th, focusing on the latest developments around AI-powered software development.
Specifically, the showcase included:

• New Tools-in-Action Track: hands-on with cutting-edge AI dev tools in live demonstrations.
  
  
• Real-World Success Stories: Learn from teams actively leveraging AI today—see what’s working, and why.
  
  
• Bold Predictions from Thought Leaders: Industry experts will share their vision for the future of AI-driven engineering.

A look at the speakers and the organizations backing them says it all; Mathias Biilmann from Netflix, Danny Allan from Snyk, Anton Arhipov from Jetbrains, Indu Chaube from Cisco, Josh Long from Broadcom, Tessl (the masterminds behind the event) and more, were all there eager to share their tips, tricks and outlook of the future.

The talks were live streamed but fortunately, they've now been uploaded on Youtube as a playlist comprising of 26 videos, all of them great but we've singled out a few to recommend in watching first.

To start with, a talk that is as relevant as it can be to the current hype surrounding AI and the day-to day-work of the developer.
In "Am I Still a Software Engineer If I Don’t Write the Code?" Annie Vella, engineer at Westpac New Zealand, in trying to answer this dangling question, she reminds us all that while AI tools may

alter the way we work, they also provide an opportunity to redefine and expand our roles, focusing on creativity, problem-solving, and system design

Next, "Using AI to Refactor Legacy Code: A Practical Guide", Scott Wierschem, founder of Keep Calm and Refactor,
reminds us that there's a lot of legacy code out there. Java 8 anyone? Legacy code stays put because no-one has the guts
to engage in the endeavor of refactoring it - if it works, keep as is. But now in the era of LLMs things seem to lighten up.
As such Scott takes us through how to use large language models like GPT to understand, document, and refactor outdated codebases.

Josh Long of Broadcom talked about Spring AI, in a talk that combines the best of both worlds; the popularity and soundness of the Spring framework going hand in hand with large language models to produce AI powered modern Java based applications.

Of course the conference wouldn't be complete without a talk on the Model Context Protocol. MCP is taking off fast, encompassing all kind of requirements; from controlling your email to controlling your smart home system, all in natural language. But developer wise is where the most utility lies. As such in "A Universal Interface for AI Native Development"
Doug Finke, Generative AI and Automation Consultant, talks us through writing Servers and Hosts in VSCode and how that fosters a common protocol for tools, agents and LLMs to interact with each other, that way amplifying the devs productivity.

Many more talks to check out. Links to all those aforementioned top talks bellow. For the rest check the associated playlists.

More Information

The Model Context Protocol: A Universal Interface for AI Native Development with Doug Finke

Am I Still a Software Engineer If I Don’t Write the Code? with Annie Vella

Bootiful Spring AI with Josh Long

Using AI to Refactor Legacy Code: A Practical Guide with Scott Wierschem

Full playlist

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