DevOps platforms provide an integrated alternative to custom toolchains, offering organizations an optimized and cohesive set of capabilities. Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant on DevOps Platform offers insights on the past, present and potential future of these platforms.

Keith Mann is a senior director in Gartner, covering software engineering strategy and practices. Keith came to Gartner after a long background in development and enterprise architecture, and is one of the authors of the Magic Quadrant for DevOps Platforms.

In this episode of the Steering Engineering Podcast, we examine the fascinating and transformative potential of AI agents with our guest Haritha Khandabattu, one of Gartner’s leading experts on the topic. We delve into the evolving role of AI agents in human-AI collaboration, their ability to work together in complex multiagent systems, and how advancements in reinforcement learning are enabling these agents to plan, adapt, and optimize their behaviors over time, paving the way for more autonomous and intelligent digital ecosystems.

Haritha Khandabattu is a Gartner senior director analyst helping C-suite leaders globally. Haritha’s current focus is on AI (including generative AI) and software engineering. She helps software engineering leaders build and execute their strategies in AI, software engineering, and leadership. She also guides organizations on the strategic, organizational and technology aspects of using AI as a driving force of their growth. Before Gartner, Haritha worked in several engineering (and executive) leadership positions in banking, retail and automotive industries.

As AI-powered tools increasingly automate tasks like code generation, bug detection, and optimization, software engineers fear their roles may shift away from hands-on development toward higher level oversight, reducing the need for deep programming expertise. However, this shift also presents opportunities for engineers to evolve their skill sets, focusing more on AI integration, data-driven decision-making, and managing complex systems, thus staying relevant in an AI-augmented future.

Our guest on today’s Steering Engineering Podcast, Cat Hicks, discusses key findings and insights from her research, including a set of thriving factors for software engineering leaders to promote and anti-thriving factors to avoid.