From Writing Code to Managing AI: Chris Morbitzer on the New Role of Software Teams

The work we do isn't going to last. The copy I write for a website or the mobile app I build will probably be obsolete within this decade. That means the things that do last, like family, matter more now, not less.

Using AI doesn't remove our responsibility to produce solutions that meet the customer's needs and last. Our rallying cry is built to last. That doesn't change just because I told a robot to build it.

If our engineers are spending more time thinking about the problem and less time writing boilerplate and doing tedious admin, that's value for the customer. That's the kind of work we were supposed to be doing as humans anyway.

These tools get you 80% of the way with a couple of hours of prompting. But you spend so much time on the last 20% that you don't end up saving much. Our engineers direct it properly from the start, so they aren't spinning cycles at the end.

One of the biggest ways work is changing is that everybody is becoming a manager, whether they realize it or not. You're managing robots instead of people.

The biggest overlooked piece is change management, and that's a leadership challenge. I had to see it for myself, cast the vision, and then walk alongside my team with empathy while they were a few steps behind.

Writing code was never the value I brought. The value is a real solution to a problem a customer actually has. Whether I write the code, lead a team of engineers, or lead a team of AI, that's the part that matters.

Most new technology gets adopted from the bottom up. AI went the other way: it started with the CEO. Managers already know how to get outcomes through delegation. Now they're delegating to a robot.

We made regular space for learning. We'd take a real client deliverable, put it on the big screen and work through it with AI as a group. What worked? What didn't?

In a world where knowledge and execution are commoditized, that work is going to see continual and severe margin compression over the next ten years. What doesn't go away is human judgment, discernment and wisdom.

We're changing our service mix. I'm not even leading with software development with prospective clients anymore. I lead with leadership. They just need someone to figure out the problem.

When a new AI tool comes across my desk, my filter is: does it solve a problem I've heard from one of my customers? If not, come back later.