TechLeadConf, an underwhelming and somewhat quiet name for an event of great magnitude, took place on the 11th and 12th of June in the northern part of Amsterdam. The imposing and industrial Kromhouthal became a temporary home for technical leaders and innovators. Visions on the future of AI and its use were shared between doubtful engineers, hopeful trailblazers, and everything in between. After a welcoming sunshine and a fresh cup of coffee, we figured out the map and saw that there was another event in the same venue. Unfortunately, this meant that we were forced to wear headphones, as other front-end meetings reigned in the bigger part of the hall. I was skeptical at first, but it actually gave the talks somewhat of a personal experience with the speakers on our smaller side. As Lindsey Simon of Vercel opened with the first talk, it became clear that it was not going to be a very technical session. Instead, we were taken on a philosophical journey where comparisons to the elements of the universe were used as an analogy for the different aspects of modern software development. Wind was used as “question everything” and water as “don’t be afraid to make mistakes”. I gleefully raised my hand when he asked us, “Who loves to be wrong?”. I’d love to be wrong about many things since it is the greatest teacher. And maybe also about the fact that this event was more than just a day off from regular work. A whole trend of using analogies to explain different aspects of other speakers appeared throughout the day. Kseniia Korostelova of Aristocrat Interactive tried to explain parts of it using a tomato plant, and Gregor Ojstersek emphasised different kinds of multipliers. It remains a great way to explain something effectively. Which brings me to a very big underlying and recurring theme of the event: being human in the first place. Something that all these people tried to do was take away uncertainties and give tech leaders a push to embrace the new tool in the ways that they all showed. Maybe something inside of me was waiting for someone to give me some pushback. The whiny old man inside of me that would shrug and realize that it probably won’t go any further. Especially if you look around and see how many people are openly anti-AI. For example, Jeff Adams of Crystal Dynamics recently admitted that his team uses AI for generating prototypes on Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and the backlash has been pretty bad. So was I stuck in a mass AI psychosis event where we all praised the tool collectively? Were these bad people kept out at the door of the event? As I made my way up to a shady back door, I saw some people around a table discussing the topic of “What skills last?”. Just like on the last day, when the un-conference took place, there were different people with different roles present to discuss several topics about AI. My neighbour explained that a lot of uncertainty stems from fears, which are different for everybody, at different levels and for different reasons. I’m reminded of the famous anti-AI quote: “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do laundry and dishes.” This definitely holds some truth, especially for me as a musician. But once you see it for the tool that it can be, which is to serve you and to take away the boring parts of everyday work, then you can easily see past its tendencies to replace you. The change and even disappearance of roles were heavily discussed, but never with a final conclusion or a big wrap-up around it with something to take home. I think all the standard arguments still stand and nothing was really taken away. I think that for me, the biggest change of mindset is that not only the roles of the developers will change, but that the management layers and higher also need a rigid understanding of how all of this is changing, and that teams are possibly getting smaller, with different roles that will merge into one. Technical people will have to brush up on their people-skills and vice versa. I think that everybody shared a piece of their enthusiasm and advice today, but everyone had to take something home for themselves. Some speakers made checklists to “check on Monday”, but I think it will be different for everyone who attended this curious event. So for me it is definitely something to be continued, and also something to write more about in the near future.