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Cruise to the Future: Role of Developers in the AI and Cloud Era

Thu, 24 April, 12:40 PM - 1:10 PM GMT+5:30

As AI and cloud technologies rapidly evolve, developers face a pivotal moment: Will AI subsume all business logic, and will cloud platforms abstract away execution environments, rendering traditional development obsolete? This session argues the contrary—highlighting how these advancements are not threats but catalysts for transformation.

We will explore how this era of rapid technological transformation, driven by the rise of AI and the pervasiveness of cloud platforms, is reshaping the role of developers. Together, we’ll uncover how these shifts are not diminishing the relevance of traditional development skills, but rather elevating them. Developers have a unique opportunity to redefine their impact, adapt to new paradigms, and remain central to innovation in an AI-first, cloud-native world.

Attendees will walk away with a wealth of practical insights into the evolving developer toolkit, covering emerging AI frameworks, deployment models, performance optimization, diagnostics, and security for AI features. We'll also explore how to build robust, scalable cloud infrastructure tailored for AI workloads, and how these technologies can enhance user experiences across applications.

Target Audience

  •     Software Engineers & Developers: Interested in integrating AI and cloud technologies into their development practices.​
  •     DevOps & Cloud Architects: Looking to design and manage infrastructures that support AI-driven applications.​
  •     Technical Leaders & Innovators: Aiming to understand the strategic implications of AI and cloud convergence on software development.

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About the speaker

Gireesh Punathil

Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM

Gireesh is an IBM master inventor and Senior Technical Staff Member part of IBM Runtimes team that develops and supports Java, Node.js and Eclipse SDK. He is an Eclipse committer and Node.js TSC member. In 22 years of his career, he has been porting, developing and debugging web servers, virtual machines, compilers and cloud platform frameworks. He has spoken at several Node.js, Java and Eclipse conferences and has authored a book on Node.js enterprise application development.