The State of Developer Experience in 2026
Nearly every engineering org has adopted AI, yet only 1 in 5 developers say their organization has a clear strategy for using it. Join our panel of industry experts to discover insights from the 2026 State of DevEx Report and learn how to move beyond AI adoption to operationalization.
Andrew Boyagi
Customer CTO, Atlassian
Kelsey Hightower
Author, Investor, and Open Source Contributor
Nathen Harvey
Principal Technologist, AWS
Jennifer Riggins
Technology Journalist
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AI is delivering meaningful local benefits: 87% of developers say it helps them ship work faster, and 80% say it helps them deliver more without working longer hours. Yet only 28% of developers report experiencing noticeably less friction than before AI.
Drawing on Atlassian’s 2026 State of Developer Experience Report, this panel explores the reality of why developers still lose time to finding information, context switching, reviewing code that misses requirements despite seeing local gains from AI tools.
Join moderator Andrew Boyagi (Customer CTO, Atlassian) alongside some of the industry’s most influential voices—Kelsey Hightower, Nathen Harvey, and Jennifer Riggins—as they share their reactions and actionable takeaways from the research.
In this session, you’ll learn:
The cost of the adoption-strategy gap: Why productivity gains are absorbed by organizational friction when there's no clear AI strategy.
Navigating the shift in the engineering role: How engineering is shifting toward judgment, code review, and quality validation over raw code generation.
Redefining productivity metrics: Why measuring AI usage alone is dangerous (and leads to performative AI), and how to focus on impact instead of activity.
Strategies for formalizing AI-native software delivery: Practical approaches to establishing clear AI strategies, leveraging persistent context across tools, and reducing delivery bottlenecks.
Can't make the live session? Register anyway and we’ll send the on-demand recording directly to your inbox.
More about the speakers
Andrew Boyagi
Customer CTO, Atlassian
Andrew Boyagi
Customer CTO, Atlassian
Andrew ist Customer CTO bei Atlassian und arbeitet mit CIOs und Führungskräften aus der ganzen Welt zusammen, um die Transformation zu beschleunigen, Arbeitsweisen zu verbessern und leistungsstarke Unternehmen aufzubauen. Seine Arbeit begann mit Entwickler- und Technologieteams, denen er dabei half, die Bereitstellung zu modernisieren, die Unternehmenskultur zu stärken und die Entwicklererfahrung zu verbessern. Seitdem hat er seine Tätigkeit ausgeweitet und prägt nun die Zusammenarbeit und Arbeitsweise ganzer Unternehmen. Mit über 20 Jahren Erfahrung in der Leitung von Technologie- und Transformationsteams, unter anderem bei der Commonwealth Bank of Australia, bringt Andrew ein fundiertes Verständnis dafür mit, wie Kultur, Führung und Systemdesign messbare Geschäftsergebnisse vorantreiben. Er verfügt über einen MBA-Abschluss und bespricht regelmäßig mit internationalen Technologieteams Themen wie DevOps, Entwicklererfahrung und die moderne Führungsrolle im Engineering.
Kelsey Hightower
Author, Investor, and Open Source Contributor
Kelsey Hightower
Author, Investor, and Open Source Contributor
Kelsey Hightower is an acclaimed technologist, speaker, and former Distinguished Engineer at Google Cloud. A prominent advocate and thought leader in the open source, Kubernetes, and cloud computing communities, Kelsey brings decades of experience navigating major technological shifts and helping software organizations scale modern engineering practices.
Nathen Harvey
Principal Technologist, AWS
Nathen Harvey
Principal Technologist, AWS
Nathen Harvey is a Principal Technologist on the Developer Experience team at AWS, focusing on software delivery performance, platform engineering, and AI enablement. He previously led DORA at Google Cloud, guiding the industry-standard framework for measuring engineering performance. As the lead author of multiple DORA reports and a former Vice President at Chef, Nathen brings deep expertise in shaping developer ecosystems. He is a frequent keynote speaker, a co-founder of regional DevOpsDays events, and a co-author of 97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know.
Jennifer Riggins
Technology Journalist
Jennifer Riggins
Technology Journalist
Jennifer Riggins is a freelance technology journalist who specializes on the intersection of business, culture, and technology. An experienced writer, marketer, live event and podcast host, Jennifer seeks to translate the impact of the technology to those who need to understand it. Her primary areas of focus include the value and impact of AI on developer experience and productivity, as well as DevEx measurement and commentary. She has been a working writer since 2003 and is based in London.