What happens to software engineering when developers stop writing code and start directing, evaluating and correcting AI?

In this episode, Georgia and Matt are joined by Annie Vella, former Distinguished Engineer at Westpac New Zealand, to explore how AI coding tools are reshaping software engineering.

Drawing on her research into AI-assisted development, Annie introduces the idea of “supervisory engineering”: the growing work of directing AI, evaluating its output, correcting mistakes and integrating generated code into complex systems.

They explore:

• The hidden cognitive load behind AI-generated code • Why code review is becoming a major bottleneck • What accountability means when engineers approve code they didn’t write • Whether we’re automating the craft and enjoyment out of software development • Why foundational engineering skills matter more than ever • What the next generation of developers should be learning • How small teams can capitalize on AI without losing essential human capabilities

It’s a conversation about the future of software development, but also about something much bigger: what happens to human judgment, learning and pride when more of our thinking is delegated to machines?

In Episode 42 of Cloud Dialogues, Georgia and Matt are joined by AI ethicist and The Mathpath founder Aubrey Blanche for a candid, provocative and surprisingly funny conversation about responsible AI in the real world.

We explore:

🔐 AI security and sovereignty Frontier-model hype, open-weight models, enterprise security, data residency and why Microsoft doesn’t necessarily need the “best” product to win.

🧠 “More capable,” not “smarter” Why anthropomorphising AI distorts how we understand - and interact with - the technology.

⚖️ What algorithmic discrimination actually looks like Why “the evil computer did it” is rarely an accurate or useful diagnosis - and why understanding the mechanism matters if we genuinely want to fix it.

📈 The problem with productivity as the goal Making broken processes faster may simply produce more garbage, more efficiently.

🎯 Incentives drive behaviour Including the inevitable consequences of token-maxing dashboards, performance targets based on AI usage and telling employees they must use six tools whether they need them or not.

👩‍💻 Why eliminating junior roles is spectacularly shortsighted Tokens may now be more expensive than interns - and without junior employees today, organisations won’t have senior experts tomorrow.

👥 Pair prompting and human expertise How teams can use AI to accelerate delivery while preserving reasoning, shared knowledge, mentorship and technical skills.

💸 The economics behind the AI narrative Why frontier-model companies need an enormous addressable market to justify their valuations - and why that makes “AI will replace all human labour” an extremely convenient story.

🌍 Who gets to shape AI? Who decides what should be automated? Whose problems receive investment? Who benefits from the dominant narrative - and what possible futures disappear when we accept it without question?

A practical discussion about adopting AI intentionally, creating genuine business value and building systems that work without forgetting the humans inside them.

Also featuring:

✨ 100 beautiful AI-generated slides that may or may not be useful 🔥 The consultant you hire when you want the truth 🪙 Tokens being set on fire for the performance dashboard 🚗 AI’s ongoing refusal to wash Aubrey’s car

Matt and Georgia are joined by Georgie Healy, former Program Lead for Google’s AI Accelerator and creator of Attention Is All I Need, for a lively conversation about AI adoption, inclusion and the very human challenge of keeping up with rapidly evolving technology.

In this episode:

📰 The latest AI news The group unpacks:

• AI-related layoffs and whether AI is sometimes being used as a convenient excuse for restructuring
• The growing security risks created by autonomous agents
• New model releases and the impossible task of keeping up with them all
• The increasingly complicated relationship between data centres, housing, energy and public infrastructure

🧠 Are we still using our brains? AI can help us learn faster, explore new topics and stress-test our thinking - but it can also make it very easy to produce work we do not fully understand.

The group discusses:

• Why critical thinking and causal reasoning matter more than ever
• The risks facing graduates who rely on AI without understanding their own answers
• Why lived experience and systems thinking remain incredibly valuable
• How to use AI as a thought partner without creating yet more AI slop

🌍 Making AI feel more inclusive Why do some people embrace AI immediately, while others feel overwhelmed, excluded or actively resistant?

Georgie argues that AI literacy should be pro-people, not simply pro-technology. Rather than forcing people to use AI for work, adoption may be more effective when people can use it to create something useful, meaningful or genuinely fun.

✨ Using AI to bring ideas to life For the first time, people without traditional coding skills can build websites, create prototypes, explore hardware and turn ideas into something tangible - without necessarily needing a developer or CTO to get started.

👩‍💻 Who will shape the next era of technology? Georgie explains why women building cyberdecks, Tamagotchis, e-readers and other wonderfully niche hardware projects have changed her view of who will lead the next wave of AI-enabled innovation.

🔥 Plus, several hot takes:

• Georgia delivers an unexpectedly defence of M365 CoPilot
• Matt assigns everyone an unreasonable amount of homework
• Georgie explains why it is perfectly reasonable to feel complicated about AI
• The group concludes that technology can be useful, concerning and fun - all at the same time

A thoughtful, practical and occasionally chaotic conversation about creativity, critical thinking, representation and what it really takes to bring people along on the AI journey.