In this episode, Preethi and Ann go somewhere most leadership podcasts won't: the honest conversation about what AI is actually doing to our teams, our roles, and our sense of professional identity right now, not in some distant future.

Preethi opens with a moment from a real leadership meeting. The question she didn't say out loud. The one most leaders in tech are carrying: am I also at risk?

Ann answers from experience — she has been laid off in an AI-driven restructuring. She knows what the fear feels like. And she knows the difference between fear and awareness. Only one of them moves you forward. No hype. No toxic positivity. Just the real conversation.

Disclaimer: Research and data cited for educational purposes. Source correction: We reference "9 in 10 workers fearing job loss" — this comes from the Resume Now 2025 AI Disruption Report, not Training Magazine as noted in the episode. Correct link below.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Senior engineers ship 2.5x more AI-generated code than junior engineers — and what that says about experience
• The transparency gap between leadership and the people doing the work
• Fear vs awareness — how to move from one to the other
• Why psychological safety determines whether AI adoption succeeds or fails
• The accountant and the calculator: your role will evolve, not disappear
• The human premium — what rises in value when AI handles the output

TIMESTAMPS:

00:10 — Cold open: The question every leader is thinking but not saying out loud

00:53 — Ann: "Am I also at risk?" — naming the fear from experience

01:14 — Segment 1: What's actually changing on engineering teams right now

01:40 — Why senior engineers are leaning into AI harder than anyone — the data

04:00 — The bottleneck has moved: from writing code to verifying it

05:53 — Segment 2: The fear nobody is naming

09:30 — The transparency gap between leadership and the people doing the work

09:50 — Segment 3: First principles for leading through disruption

10:15 — Psychological safety — why culture determines whether AI rollout succeeds or fails

12:46 — The accountant and the calculator: your role will evolve, not disappear

13:11 — The human premium: what rises in value when AI handles the output

RESEARCH & SOURCES: Addy Osmani — The Next Two Years of Software Engineering addyosmani.com/blog/next-two-years

Agentic Code Review addyosmani.com/blog/agentic-code-review

Fastly Developer Survey 2025 fastly.com/blog/senior-developers-ship-more-ai-code

Resume Now — 2025 AI Disruption Report resume-now.com/job-resources/careers/ai-disruption-report

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