RovoCon SF 2026: Say Hello to Your New AI Teammate
I joined the Atlassian team just weeks ago as a Developer Advocate, and within my first few days, I was already headed to my very first RovoCon in San Francisco. Hosted by our Atlassian Community Champions, the event made one thing crystal clear: AI agents aren’t just chat tools anymore, they’re doers. They can now execute complex tasks while keeping you perfectly in the loop. It’s like having a little minion in your pocket.
Here is my recap of the day from a “Newlassian” perspective.
🏢Arriving at the Office
I arrived shortly after 9:00 AM and was greeted with signs and arrows directing me exactly where I needed to go. Friendly office staff met me with a lanyard and a swag bag (socks and a beanie, shout out to the organizers for the top-tier choices!).
A beautiful platter of breakfast was available with all the goodies: muffins, fruit, and coffee. I grabbed my assortment and took a seat. RovoCon was already off to a great start. Once the talks began, I saw the real magic of the new way of working.
Rovo: Your New AI Teammate
The morning kicked off with a deep dive into how AI is transitioning from a tool to a teammate. We’re talking about unlocking unprecedented productivity by handing off mundane, repetitive tasks to a dedicated AI assistant.
A few stats really jumped out at me:
- 78% of users now prefer Rovo search over traditional Confluence search.
- Context Reigns Supreme: Having used Confluence search for years, I’ve watched it miss the mark more than once. Rovo changes that—it doesn’t just find a page; it grasps your intent.
Atlassian even created a chatbot specifically for us “Newlassians,” which has made my onboarding seamless. It turns a 30-minute documentation hunt into a 5-second natural language query. Count me in that 78%!
🤖 The Shift: From Chatbots to Action Agents
The theme “From Chat to Action” is where the sheer velocity of AI change became visible. We aren’t just talking to LLMs anymore; we are giving them “Skills” (formerly known as Actions) so they can actually execute work.
- 50x Productivity: The ability to automate tasks, like drafting emails or updating Jira statuses etc. This can happen directly from the chat interface now, total game changer.
- Rovo Studio: Currently in internal testing, this allows anyone to build agents using natural language. It doesn’t just lower the technical barrier; it demolishes it.
🍱 Lunch Time
Lunch was a 10/10 highlight: Filipino pork with garlic rice. Mic drop.
Choosing between the Rovo Dev and Rovo Agents workshops was a tough call, but the Agents track won out. As a Developer Advocate, I’m obsessed with empowering our community, and Rovo Agents serve as the ultimate tool for that—they hand ‘ultimate power’ directly to the user. Plus, since I’m planning a deep dive into Rovo Agents for our Atlassian Developers YouTube channel, I wanted to get a front-row seat to see how others are putting them to work in the wild.
🛠️ The “No Agenda” Workshop: Real-Time Magic
The team didn’t anticipate the massive turnout, but about three-quarters of the room piled into the Rovo Agent workshop. With no slides in sight, a customer shared a real-world pain point: her documentation team wanted to automate glossary creation for their docs.
The host’s response? He built the solution right in front of us. Using nothing but natural language, he instructed Rovo to pull data, create mock examples, and format a comprehensive glossary. Rovo turned a weeks-long project into a few seconds of work.
My Take: This allows for rapid iterations. No more waiting weeks for feedback or “review cycles.” With Rovo, you can refine a document in real time and reach a “perfect product” in record time.
💡 The Verdict: We are all Executives Now
The speed of AI can feel overwhelming, but RovoCon proved that the best approach is to embrace it as your personal assistant.
In 2006, only CEOs enjoyed the luxury of a personal assistant In 2026, we are all that executive. We now have AI agents to handle the routine and the mundane, while we focus our energy on solving complex, creative problems.
Key Takeaways:
- The Barrier to Entry is Gone: If you can describe your problem in plain English, you can build a solution in Rovo.
- Speed is the New Feature: The gap between “I have a problem” and “I have a solution” has shrunk from weeks to minutes.
I’m leaving RovoCon with a clear vision: The future of work isn’t about working harder; it’s about being the architect of your own AI-powered efficiency.