The Serverless Edge @ServerlessEdge

“AI is making specifications a first-class engineering artefact again.” For years, we treated specs as paperwork. Now they're becoming one of the most valuable assets in software engineering. Because AI can generate the code. But it still needs: ✅ clear intent ✅ clear context ✅ clear requirements The teams that win with AI won't be the ones writing the most code. They'll be the ones writing the best specifications. New Serverless CrAIc episode 👇 theserverlessedge.com/spec-driven-de… #AI #SoftwareEngineering #SpecDrivenDevelopment #AIEngineering

“You can’t outsource your critical thinking.” AI accelerates delivery. But judgement, architecture and organisational clarity still matter more than ever. youtube.com/watch?v=dWIng6… #AI #EngineeringLeadership

“If code generation throughput goes up, then all the other stuff becomes even more important.” AI can accelerate software delivery. But it also increases: -cognitive load -coordination challenges -governance pressure -architectural complexity That’s why Team Topologies and socio-technical thinking matter more than ever. New article 👇 theserverlessedge.com/ai-engineering… #AI #PlatformEngineering #SoftwareEngineering #DevOps

AI isn’t just changing software delivery. It’s changing the shape of engineering teams. “The bottleneck is no longer code creation.” Now it’s: -cognitive load -decision making -collaboration -organisational design And that’s why concepts like Team Topologies matter more than ever. Because AI agents don’t remove complexity. They amplify it. The teams that succeed won’t just adopt AI faster. They’ll design better socio-technical systems around it. New Serverless CrAIc episode 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=kquxaS… #AI #TeamTopologies #SoftwareEngineering #EngineeringLeadership #PlatformEngineering

“The agentic AI stuff will accelerate you into all your weak points.” @bigheadoreilly That might be the most important thing engineering leaders need to hear right now. AI won’t magically fix: -poor testing strategies -weak engineering standards -technical debt -bad observability -unclear product thinking It accelerates all of it. The organisations thriving with AI aren’t skipping engineering discipline. They’re doubling down on it. Because when software generation becomes easy… 👉 verification 👉 critical thinking 👉 systems thinking 👉 engineering excellence become the real competitive advantage. 👇 theserverlessedge.com/ai-generated-c… #AI #SoftwareEngineering #EngineeringLeadership

“Code is a liability. The system is the asset.” That quote feels more relevant than ever in the AI era. Because AI can now generate: ✅ thousands of lines of code ✅ tests ✅ APIs ✅ entire workflows But here’s the problem: More code ≠ more value. And unmanaged AI-generated code? That’s technical debt at machine speed. The teams winning right now aren’t just generating code faster. They’re investing in: engineering excellence observability verification critical thinking New Serverless Craic episode 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=43tYW8… #AI #SoftwareEngineering #TechnicalDebt #EngineeringLeadership #DevOps

Big news for the AWS community. 🚀 Next month, David Anderson will be headlining at AWS Comsum Birmingham 2026 with his talk: The Real Impact of the AI-DLC The way we build software is changing faster than most organisations can adapt. AI is no longer just another tool in the engineering toolbox. It’s reshaping the entire software delivery lifecycle — from developer experience and modernisation strategy to platform engineering and organisational design. In this session, Dave will explore: → What the AI Development Lifecycle (AIDLC) actually means in practice → How AWS services fit into a coherent AI strategy → Where AI genuinely creates value — and where hype outpaces reality → How engineering leaders can modernise without losing what makes their teams effective → Practical steps organisations can take immediately If you're navigating AI adoption, platform modernisation, cloud strategy, or the future of software engineering, this is a session you won’t want to miss. 📍 Birmingham 📅 4 June 2026 🏛️ The Bond & Fazeley Studios AWS Comsum has become one of the UK’s leading independent AWS community events, bringing together engineers, architects, CTOs, and technology leaders from organisations including Barclays, the BBC, NatWest, Booking.com, Lego, Shell, Datadog, and many more. Expect a full day of talks, workshops, networking, and real-world AWS insights from practitioners building at scale. 🎟️ Get tickets here: comsum.co.uk/birmingham-26 #AWS #Serverless #CloudComputing #SoftwareEngineering @davidand393

AI gets it. Not because it’s trendy. Not because it’s theoretical. Because it’s battle-tested. 👉 Real systems 👉 Real constraints 👉 Real organisational change While everyone debates AI… most teams are still stuck in run mode. That’s the problem this book solves. Less noise. More value. #ValueFlywheel #Serverless #CloudStrategy #EngineeringLeadership #AI

Leadership in the AI era isn’t about having answers. It’s about creating space for questions. “It’s psychologically exhausting trying to keep up.” If your team doesn’t feel safe to say “I’m not sure this is right”… you’re not moving fast — you’re moving blind. New article on psychological safety in AI engineering teams 👇 theserverlessedge.com/psychological-… Are your teams thinking — or just shipping? #AI #Leadership #EngineeringLeadership #TechLeadership

“Good engineers are saying, ‘I’m not quite sure about this’… and they’re being shut down.” That’s happening right now. Not because engineers are wrong. But because AI hype is louder than critical thinking. We’re in the fastest technology shift most teams have ever experienced. And the real risk isn’t AI. It’s this: 👉 Teams don’t feel safe to question it 👉 Leaders don’t know when to slow things down 👉 Engineers stop challenging bad ideas That’s how you ship the wrong things… faster. In this episode of Serverless CrAIc, we unpack: Psychological safety in the AI era Why engineers are feeling the pressure And what leaders need to do right now 🎥 Watch the full discussion: youtube.com/watch?v=8rjKqb… #AI #SoftwareEngineering #EngineeringLeadership #TechLeadership #DeveloperExperience

Mark Cuban just described the largest wealth transfer of the AI era. Almost nobody understood what he said. Cuban: “There are 33 million companies in this country. Aren’t going to have AI budgets. Aren’t going to have AI experts.” Not tech startups. The shoe store. The regional trucking outfit. The accounting firm with 12 employees. The businesses that actually run the physical economy. They know AI is coming. They have no idea what to do with it. Cuban: “You’ve got the head of Microsoft saying software is dead because everything’s going to be customized to your unique utilization.” Software is dead. The SaaS era ran on one rule. Build a generic product. Force millions of companies to bend their workflows around it. Charge rent forever. AI ends the contract. The business stops bending to the software. The intelligence bends to the business. But customized by whom. The third-generation manufacturer cannot tell Claude from Gemini. The county hospital is staring at a reactor asking where the light switch is. Cuban: “Who’s going to do it for them?” That question is worth more than the frontier models themselves. Hundreds of billions are being burned to build the foundation. The smartest engineers alive are locked in a bloodbath over who owns the base layer. Let them fight. Let them burn the capital. Let them drive the cost of raw intelligence toward zero. Because the wealth does not collect where the brain is built. It collects where the brain meets the business. Every ambitious kid in college right now thinks survival means a seat at OpenAI or Anthropic. Cuban is staring at the other 99 percent of the economy. Learn the models. Then learn the messy, unglamorous reality of how a 50-person company actually operates. Walk through the door. Understand their problems. Wire the intelligence directly into their revenue. That is not a job title. That is an entire economic class being born. You do not need to build the brain. You need to build the nervous system. The biggest winners of the electricity era were not the engineers who built the generators. They were the ones who walked into dark factories and showed the owners where to plug in. 33 million companies are standing in the dark right now. Silicon Valley is racing to build the god. The fortunes will belong to whoever teaches him a trade.

What does a high-performing modern cloud team actually look like? Not in theory. Not in a slide deck. But in how they think, decide, and deliver every single day. After years of working with teams across the cloud landscape, we’ve distilled it down to a set of principles we now call: 👉 The high-performing, serverless-first team Here’s what sets them apart: 🚀 They chase business outcomes (not output) They know their KPI — and it’s tied to real impact: revenue, customer experience, activation. Not story points. 🔐 They are secure by design Security isn’t a phase. It’s embedded in everything they build. ⚡ They maintain high throughput Fast deployments. Rapid feedback. Continuous learning. 🛡️ They run highly stable systems Speed without stability is chaos. They balance both using DORA metrics. ♻️ They rent and reuse before they build Code is a liability. Managed services are leverage. 💰 They optimise for cost continuously Cost isn’t an afterthought — it’s an architectural concern. 📡 They build event-driven systems with strong APIs Resilient, scalable, and designed for change. 🧠 They build systems that fit in their heads Low cognitive load. High clarity. Sustainable engineering. And above all: ✨ They embody engineering excellence This isn’t about tools. It’s about mindset, discipline, and intentional design. 💭 The real question is: How does your team measure up? linkedin.com/pulse/what-doe…

🚀 100+ episodes. 100+ conversations. Countless insights.We’ve officially crossed the 100 mark on our Serverless CrAIc playlist on YouTube — and what a journey it’s been.From serverless architectures and platform engineering to AI, value flywheels, and everything in between… This is where real conversations happen.💡 No fluff. 🎙 No scripts. 🔥 Just CrAIc — with some of the sharpest minds in tech.👉 Dive into the full playlist: youtube.com/watch?v=ATdBck… you’ve been part of the journey — thank you. If you’re new — there’s never been a better time to jump in.#Serverless #AI #PlatformEngineering #TechLeadership #Cloud #CrAIc

Happy Easter to all our brilliant followers and listeners! 🐣🌸 Whether you’re diving into chocolate, enjoying a well-earned break, or just taking a moment to recharge — we hope your day is full of good vibes, great company, and maybe even a few egg-cellent ideas. Here’s to fresh starts, new energy, and cracking on with what matters (after one more chocolate egg… obviously). Have a fantastic Easter! 🐰✨

🚄 London bound today. Dave is heading to London town for a roundtable hosted by Steamhaus — and if the current conversations in our space are anything to go by, we’re expecting two big themes to dominate: ⚙️ The Value Flywheel 🤖 AI (and how to actually operationalise it, not just talk about it) These sessions are always where theory meets reality — operators sharing what’s working, what’s not, and where the real value is being unlocked. If you’re in the room, expect honest conversations about: Moving beyond AI hype into production-grade systems Designing architectures that compound value over time Aligning engineering, data, and business outcomes #AI #ValueFlywheel #Roundtable #Steamhaus

Big thanks as always to @jeremy_daly who features our latest Serverless CrAIc episode in the always brilliant 'Off by None' newsletter - and as you can see the emphasis is on AI! Here is Jeremy's blurb: "The Serverless Craic team covers the North Star framework, the difference between leading and lagging metrics, and how AI tools are removing friction from development cycles. They discuss the increasingly popular opinion of why product-oriented engineering practices matter even more when you can ship features in hours instead of months." Subscribe to the newsletter here: offbynone.io/issues/357/

☘️ Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all of us at The Serverless Edge! We like to think we put the AI into CrAIc! Where cutting-edge tech meets great conversation, bold ideas, and a bit of Irish charm. Sláinte! 🍻

AI didn’t remove the hardest problem in software. It made it worse. Knowing what to build. If your team doesn’t have a clear North Star, AI will just help you build the wrong things faster. New article 👇 theserverlessedge.com/ai-software-de… #AI #SoftwareEngineering #ProductEngineering

“If AI lets us build software faster… the real risk is building the wrong thing faster.” That’s the uncomfortable truth of the AI era. AI tools are removing friction from software development at an incredible pace. We can prototype faster. Ship features faster. Experiment faster. But speed doesn’t solve the hardest problem in software. Clarity does. Before writing a line of code — or prompting an AI agent — teams still need to answer one critical question: 👉 What problem are we actually solving? Without that clarity, AI doesn’t create value. It just accelerates waste. The teams that win in the AI era won’t be the ones with the most tools. They’ll be the ones with: • a clear North Star • strong product thinking • good observability and feedback loops • engineers who understand systems, not just code AI increases velocity. But direction still determines whether you arrive anywhere useful. Full discussion on the latest Serverless CrAIc episode 👇 youtube.com/watch?v=ATdBck… #AI #SoftwareEngineering #ProductEngineering #TechLeadership #GenAI #Serverless