What if writing code isn’t actually the most important part of engineering?

In this episode of Futureproof, Prakash Chandran sits down with Aleksander Hakestad, CTO and co-founder at Apart Tech, to explore what it really takes to build software in an AI-native world without losing quality, craft, or control. Aleksander explains why the best leaders stay hands-on so they can evaluate quality, why depth of expertise beats climbing the career ladder, and why communication becomes the true bottleneck in modern engineering—especially across cultures and teams. Together, they unpack a pragmatic model for AI-assisted development where agents touch everything, humans own the architecture, and teams learn fast by setting clear standards, building tight feedback loops, and committing fully to a new way of working.

Topics covered include:

• AI-assisted development is still engineering: Why prompting is only the start—and disciplined iteration is what makes it reliable.
• Hands-on leadership and quality control: Why leaders must stay close enough to the craft to evaluate output and set the bar.
• Communication as the real bottleneck: How visual systems reduce misalignment across teams, languages, and cultures.
• From big teams to small, leveraged teams: How agentic workflows can create outsized throughput with a small core team.
• Depth over titles: Why mastering a domain matters more than career climb—and why expertise is more valuable than ever.

Episode ID: 18740056-ai-development-isn-t-an-easy-button-with-aleksander-hakestad-apart-tech

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