Beyond the Hype

Colin is joined by Dean Kerr (Lead Developer) and Amy Laws (Developer) to discuss 'The Experiment' – a four‑week study exploring how AI really affects software development. Instead of synthetic benchmarks, the team tackled genuine issues in an open‑source project, alternating between AI‑assisted work and going completely 'cold turkey'. The contrasts were striking. Amy's AI‑free period exposed how dependent everyday development has become on instant summaries and contextual answers. Meanwhile, Dean found that adopting a simple agentic loop – Analysis → Implementation → Reflection – helped him make better use of AI rather than blindly accept its output. Together, their experiences reveal a discipline in flux: developers gain speed and support from AI, but also confront questions about craftsmanship, learning, and where the fun in software now sits as the tools reshape both workflow and mindset. Useful links for this episode Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity – METR SWE-bench – SWE-bench Team Analysis → Implementation → Reflection – a practical technique for issue resolution with agentic AI – Dean Kerr, Scott Logic Agentic Engineering Patterns – Red/green TDD – Simon Willison's Weblog

In this episode of Beyond the Hype, Colin Eberhardt is joined by Remi Van Goethem to unpack the fast‑evolving world of AI‑accelerated software development. From everyday autocompletion to emerging multi‑agent frameworks, they explore how AI is reshaping coding practice and where human engineering judgement still matters. Remi shares his recent experience rapidly prototyping a planning application using a Research–Plan–Implement workflow, highlighting how AI can transform early‑stage discovery, architecture thinking, and delivery speed. Together, they consider what this shift means for developers, architects, and CTOs as AI starts to generate more of our code, and whether vibe coding is a glimpse of software's future or simply the latest trend. Useful links for this episode Will the future of software development run on vibes? – Ars Technica Welcome to Gas Town – Stephen Yegge I miss thinking hard – Juan Ernesto Agentic Coding Makes Old Coders Young and Young Coders Old – Scott Francis AI-Assisted Development at Block – Angie Jones Research → Plan → Implement Pattern – Goose

In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined by colleagues James Camilleri and Hélène Sauvé to explore the complex topic of AI sustainability. It's a conversation that spans the environmental impact of AI, from carbon emissions to water usage, and examines whether the industry narrative matches reality. They delve into the trade-offs between energy and water, the role of lifecycle analysis, and how approaches such as federated learning and smaller models could help. They also ask whether "green AI" is more than marketing hype, and what practical steps organisations can take to make AI genuinely sustainable. Useful links for this episode Technology Carbon Standard – Open-sourced by Scott Logic Balancing AI Innovation and Sustainability: Our presentation at HM Treasury ID25 – Oliver Cronk Greener AI - what matters, what helps, and what we still do not know – James Camilleri Introducing AI-related emissions into the Technology Carbon Standard – Hélène Sauvé Mapping the carbon footprint of digital content – Hélène Sauvé Sustainability in AI - why we must listen to the smaller players – Hélène Sauvé Sustainability topic on the Scott Logic Blog Beyond the Hype: Can technology sustainability really make a difference? Beyond the Hype: Can we do better than 'carbon aware' computing? Artificial intelligence threatens to raid the water reserves of Europe's driest regions – Marianne Gros and Leonie Cater, Politico Mistral Green Tech South West Will new models like DeepSeek reduce the direct environmental footprint of AI? – Chris Adams Government Digital Sustainability Alliance (GDSA) Hugging Face Empire of AI – Wikipedia Computer Says Maybe podcast GreenIO podcast V-Bucks – Fortnite Wiki

In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined by Josie Walledge, Catherine Pratt and Dave Ogle to explore whether Agile has lost its meaning – or worse, become a dirty word. With years of combined experience, the panel reflects on Agile's evolution from a revolutionary mindset to a sometimes rigid and misunderstood process. They unpack common misconceptions, like Agile being synonymous with speed or chaos, and discuss how frameworks like Scrum and SAFe can either empower or constrain teams. The conversation highlights the importance of planning, governance, and trust, emphasising that Agile works best when it's flexible, outcome-focused, and tailored to context. Whether you're deep in delivery or just curious about Agile's relevance today, this episode offers practical insights and candid reflections that go well beyond the hype. Useful links for this episode The Agile Manifesto Our Approach to Delivery – Josie Walledge, Scott Logic Why a holistic approach is the key to a successful legacy modernisation project – Catherine Pratt, Scott Logic Dave Ogle's blog posts on Agile – Dave Ogle, Scott Logic Strategy to Reality with Whynde Kuehn, Lisa Woodall and Catherine Pratt – Architect Tomorrow

In this episode of Beyond the Hype, Oliver Cronk is joined by Ani Allen from OutSystems and Ryan Grey from Marra to discuss the evolving landscape of Low-Code, No-Code, and AI-assisted development. With backgrounds spanning neuroscience, enterprise software, and consultancy, the guests bring a rich mix of perspectives to a conversation that cuts through the hype. They explore the spectrum from No-Code, through Low-Code, to High- (or Pro-?) Code, and consider how AI is reshaping the development experience. From citizen developers and shadow IT to the promise (and pitfalls) of conversational coding, the discussion highlights both the opportunities and governance challenges that come with democratising software creation. Whether you're a developer, tech leader, or just curious about the future of building software, this episode offers a grounded look at how Low-Code and AI might transform your digital strategy, if used wisely. Useful links for this episode Marra insight articles – Marra OutSystems blog posts – OutSystems Microsoft Power Platform Center of Excellence (CoE) Starter Kit – Microsoft Is It Cake? – Wikipedia

In this episode, Oliver Cronk dives into the world of Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) with Tom Fairbairn from Solace and Scott Logic's Gordon Campbell. The discussion explores whether EDA has matured beyond the hype into a practical strategy for modern systems integration, or if it's just another architectural buzzword. Together, they unpack the core principles of EDA, its role in taming point-to-point integration chaos, and how asynchronous processing can help smooth demand spikes. Drawing on real-world examples from finance, retail, and public sector projects, the conversation highlights the power and pitfalls of adopting EDA. Whether you're navigating legacy systems, planning a cloud migration, or exploring AI integration, this episode offers a grounded perspective on when – and when not – to go event-driven. Useful links for this episode Data engineering posts on the Scott Logic blog Tom Fairbairn's posts on the Solace blog Event-Driven Integration posts on the Solace blog

Oliver Cronk is joined by Scott Logic's Sophia Ashley and Alix Dunn from the 'Computer Says Maybe' podcast for a wide-ranging discussion which poses ethical questions that are frequently ignored in the race for technological innovation. Together, they explore the intersection of technology and power, and examine whether society is unwittingly allowing technology to reshape our world without adequate scrutiny or safeguards. As technological innovations continue to promote the atomisation and polarisation of society and the erosion of human agency, our guests consider what's required to achieve the right balance of People, Planet and Profit. From the global to the local, the discussion rounds off by providing practical advice on how you can promote a more human-centric approach to technology in your life and your work. Useful links for this episode Computer Says Maybe podcast Defying Datafication with Dr Abeba Birhane – Computer Says Maybe The Human in the Loop: what's it like to work in the AI supply chain? – Computer Says Maybe Are we sleepwalking into tomorrow's AI challenges? – Oliver Cronk Gradual Disempowerment: Systemic Existential Risks from Incremental AI Development – Jan Kulveit, Raymond Douglas, Nora Ammann, Deger Turan, David Krueger, David Duvenaud The Planet as a Stakeholder The Responsible Business Map The Green PO Doing the Doughnut Tech

In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined by colleagues David Rees, Hélène Sauvé, Ivan Mladjenovic and Emma Pearce. Together, they delve into the practical applications and limitations of agentic AI and its implications for enterprise AI deployments. The team shares insights from the 'Infer' research and development projects, through which Scott Logic produced and open-sourced InferLLM (a local, personalised AI agent) and InferESG (which uses AI agents to identify greenwashing in Environmental, Social and Governance reports). With real-world examples and expert perspectives, the panel provides a nuanced view of whether fully autonomous agents are hype or reality in 2025. They discuss the balance between human oversight and automation, and emphasise the importance of transparency and traceability in AI systems. They also consider the ethical considerations of self-building agents and the challenges of ensuring reliable AI outputs. Have a listen to gain a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of agentic AI and its potential impact on various sectors. Useful links for this episode InferLLM on GitHub – Open-sourced by Scott Logic InferESG on GitHub – Open-sourced by Scott Logic InferESG: Augmenting ESG Analysis with Generative AI – David Rees, Scott Logic InferESG: Finding the Right Architecture for AI-Powered ESG Analysis – David Rees, Scott Logic InferESG: Harnessing agentic AI for due diligence – Scott Logic case study Beyond the Hype: Will we ever be able to secure GenAI? – Scott Logic Beyond the Hype: Is architecture for AI even necessary? – Scott Logic Draft classification for different types of Enterprise AI deployment – Oliver Cronk, Scott Logic

In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined by colleagues Jess McEvoy and James Heward, and Atom Bank's Head of AI and Data Science, Russell Collingham, to tackle the provocative question: "Is architecture for AI even necessary?" They explore the transformative impact of generative AI and the critical role of architecture in ensuring sustainable and scalable implementations. Russell shares Atom Bank's approach to building reusable AI components while navigating security and governance challenges. James emphasises the evolving role of architects in balancing innovation with practical constraints, arguing that architecture remains essential for mission-critical applications. Jess provides a public sector perspective, highlighting the need for a balanced approach to AI regulation and innovation. The episode also delves into the geopolitical implications of AI, the importance of data sovereignty, and the potential for the UK to develop its own AI strategy. Have a listen to gain insights into the ongoing debate about the necessity of architecture in the AI era and the strategic considerations for leveraging AI effectively. Useful links for this episode There is more than one way to do GenAI – Oliver Cronk, Scott Logic Are we sleepwalking into tomorrow's AI challenges? – Oliver Cronk, Scott Logic Building Effective AI Agents – Anthropic Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not Be Developed (PDF) – Hugging Face Will the US cloud soon be illegal in the EU? – CIO

In this episode of Beyond the Hype, Oliver Cronk is joined by Bradon Rogers from Island, along with Scott Logic colleagues Dean Kerr and Robat Williams, to explore the potential of enterprise browsers. They delve into the advantages of enterprise browsers over standard options like Chrome and Edge, particularly in terms of security and productivity. Bradon describes how enterprise browsers, built on a Chromium foundation, offer a familiar user experience while integrating robust security features and application delivery capabilities. The discussion also covers the challenges of using consumer-grade browsers in corporate environments, the benefits of desktop container technologies, and the potential for enterprise browsers to simplify security and enhance user productivity. Join the panel as they consider whether enterprise browsers will transform the way organisations manage and secure their digital workspaces. Useful links for this episode Emerging Tech: Security — The Future of Enterprise Browsers – Gartner Web browsers: Reimagining remote work needs at the enterprise level – CIO The rise of the enterprise browser and what's next for secure browsing – VentureBeat

In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined by Technology Lead Andrew Carr and CTO Colin Eberhardt to delve into the evolving nature of technology strategy within organisations. As technological advancements accelerate, they question the relevance of a traditional long-term technology strategy and whether it has become an industry buzzword in itself. They explore the annual ritual of tech predictions and strategic planning, and whether it is practical or performative. They also debate the balance between addressing technical debt and fostering innovation, the influence of analyst-driven hype, and the critical decision of buy versus build. There's a lot of hype to navigate around, but they bring their range of experiences to bear in providing a nuanced perspective on how to create effective technology strategies that genuinely add value – by aligning technology strategies with business goals. Links from this episode How to build an effective technical strategy – LeadDev Better than a secret weapon: 5 steps to a winning technology skills strategy – TechUK The Tech:Forward recipe for a successful technology transformation – McKinsey

In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined for a discussion on observability by Scott Rowan, Senior Developer at Scott Logic, and Daniel Gomez Blanco, Principal Engineer at Skyscanner and a member of the Open Telemetry Governance Committee. The conversation explores what observability means in modern distributed software architectures, how it differs from traditional monitoring, and the challenges of implementing observability at scale. The discussion touches on practical aspects of implementing observability and how this approach can lead to faster problem detection and resolution, as well as cost savings by reducing the volume of less useful data collected. The rise in popularity of observability has gone hand in hand with the rise of microservices and event-driven architectures. But although it's a relatively new kid on the block, is observability hyped or a necessary evolution in managing modern software systems? Links from this episode What is Observability? – The New Relic perspective What is Observability? – The Dynatrace perspective OpenTelemetry website OpenTelemetry introduction at CloudNativeCon

In this episode, Oliver Cronk, Doro Hinrichs and Kira Clark from Scott Logic are joined by Peter Gostev, Head of AI at Moonpig. Together, they explore whether we can ever really trust and secure Generative AI (GenAI), while sharing stories from the front line about getting to grips with this rapidly evolving technology. With its human-like, non-deterministic nature, GenAI frustrates traditional pass/fail approaches to software testing. The panellists explore ways to tackle this, and discuss Scott Logic's Spy Logic project which helps development teams investigate defensive measures against prompt injection attacks on a Large Language Model. Looking to the future, they ask whether risk mitigation measures will ever be effective – and what impact this will have on product and service design – before offering pragmatic advice on what organisations can do to navigate this terrain. Links from this episode Prompt injection explained, with video, slides, and a transcript – Simon Willison's Weblog Spy Logic on GitHub Spy Logic – Doro Hinrichs and Heather Logan How the tables turned – My life with Spy Logic – Kira Clark

In this episode, Oliver Cronk and David Rees from Scott Logic are joined by Hannah Smith, Director of Operations at Green Web Foundation, an organisation aiming to make the internet fossil-free by 2030. Together, they explore the potential benefits and limitations of 'carbon aware' computing, which involves scheduling computational workloads during times or in locations where energy sources have lower carbon emissions. With the simplicity of 'carbon aware' being at odds with the complexities of managing the electricity grid, they move on to discussing 'grid aware'. This concept goes beyond carbon intensity to take into account factors like grid stability, demand patterns, and energy sources being curtailed. Ultimately, they consider just how marginal the gains are likely to be. With global emissions from cloud computing already exceeding those from commercial flights, is 'carbon aware' a distraction from getting to grips with the scale of the challenge we face? Links from this episode Green Web Foundation What software engineers need to know about how energy grids work - Green Web Foundation (thegreenwebfoundation.org) Full Grid Aware Research on GitHub Sustainability topic on the Scott Logic Blog

In this episode, Colin Eberhardt is joined by Jess McEvoy and Peter Chamberlin, who have both spent many years in senior roles within public sector organisations. Their conversation covers the excitement and concerns around AI, both from a citizen's perspective and for those building public services. They discuss the UK government's approach to addressing AI challenges with its pro-innovation mantra, and whether this creates the right environment for success. They also touch on the need for global cooperation when tackling what are increasingly becoming global challenges. Links from this episode A guide to using artificial intelligence in the public sector National AI Strategy (PDF) A pro-innovation approach to AI Prime Minister's speech on AI: 26 October 2023 The Bletchley Declaration – November 2023 Policy implications of artificial intelligence (AI) A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation: government response AI Safety Institute - Third progress report

In this episode, Oliver Cronk, Andrew Carr and David Hope talk about the ever-changing world of data, with conversations moving from data warehouse to data lake, and data mesh to data fabric. They discuss the importance of data ownership and common tooling, and their view that data mesh is an approach rather than an architecture. Links from the podcast Data Mesh by Zhamak Dehghani Data Fabric as Modern Data Architecture by Alice LaPlante Principles of Data Fabric by Sonia Mezzetta

In this episode, Oliver Cronk is joined by experts including Jeremy Axe, Group CTO at DS Smith, and consultants Darren Smith and Katie Davis from Scott Logic. Together, they unpack topics like the energy usage and carbon emissions of IT infrastructure, the challenges in accurately measuring sustainability, and whether claims of 'green tech' are substantiated or just hype. The conversation covers the nuances around operational versus embodied carbon emissions, the sustainability trade-offs involved in cloud versus on-premises hosting, and the need for transparency and standards around eco-friendly tech claims. Links from the podcast Proposed Technology Carbon Standard – open sourced by Scott Logic under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence Scott Logic blog posts on Sustainability – including the Conscientious Computing series DS Smith's approach to sustainability Scott Logic's approach to supporting technology sustainability

In this episode, Colin is joined by Rebecca Rumbul, CEO of Rust Foundation, and Mirko Boehm from Linux Foundation Europe. Between them, they have decades of experience in open source. They start by discussing the critical role open source has grown to play in the world of software and how this, along with its growing complexity, presents significant challenges. They then turn their attention to the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), a piece of EU legislation that is actively under development, designed to make end-user products more secure. Early drafts of this act detailed significant obligations on open source maintainers, despite the fact that they often work without financial reward. This caused concern, fear and some anger in the open source community. They discuss the latest update to the CRA, which has thankfully addressed these concerns, and ponder whether it will actually solve the problems it has set out to tackle. Links from the podcast: Panel Discussion: The Impact of the CRA on the Open Source Ecosystem – Cheukting, Mirko & Greg, Laura, Justin, Philip The EU's new Cyber Resilience Act is about to tell us how to code – Bert Hubert's writings Will the Cyber Resilience Act help the European ICT sector compete? Understanding the Cyber Resilience Act: What Everyone involved in Open Source Development Should Know EU CRA: What does it mean for open source? – Bert Hubert's writings The EU's Proposed CRA Law May Have Unintended Consequences for the Python Ecosystem

In this episode, Oliver and Peter from Scott Logic are joined by Laura Bell Main, CEO and co-founder of SafeStack, for a lively discussion on DevSecOps. They touch on techniques such as "assume breach" and "shift left", and the relationship to DevOps, which is trying to solve a similar problem. However, much of the discussion focused quite simply on security and the challenges this presents, especially when this so often falls to a very small team or an individual. Laura mentioned OneHourAppSec at the end of the recording. It's a free appsec program that helps software teams worldwide bring security to their software development lifecycle in just one hour per sprint. You can join at any time, from anywhere. She'd love you to check it out. Links from the podcast: The Assume Breach Paradigm Shift left vs shift right: A DevOps mystery solved

In this episode, Colin Eberhardt is joined by Bailey Hayes from Cosmonic and Sean Isom from Adobe – between them, they have a wealth of WebAssembly experience and insights. They start by discussing the early days of WebAssembly, and where it all began, in the browser. They debate the infamous tweet that compares WebAssembly to Docker, and look at the future promise of the Component Model, which aims to break down language barriers. Given the amount of activity happening in the WebAssembly/WASI/Component Model space, there are a few upcoming events you might be interested in: WasmCon, 6-7 Sept Componentize the World Hackathon, 8 Sept Enjoy this episode! Links from the podcast: WebAssembly nanoprocesses: making WebAssembly outside-the-browser secure by default AutoCAD featured in Google I/O Keynote WASI - WebAssembly System Interface How Prime Video updates its app for more than 8,000 device types Introducing the Disney+ Application Development Kit (ADK) Bytecode Alliance If WASM+WASI existed in 2008, we wouldn't have needed to created Docker WebAssembly Component Model Photoshop's journey to the web WebAssembly: An Updated Roadmap for Developers