Cisco director of engineering on managing agents: I'm not working more, but work can feel more intense
Sergio Freitas said that using agents to do more work results in more code that need to be reviewed by engineers.
TL;DR
- AI agents are significantly changing the pace and nature of software engineering work.
- Engineers are transitioning from manual code creation to architecture, design, and agent orchestration.
- Sergio Freitas manages 10-20 AI agents daily, which can manage other agents for complex tasks.
- Agents can create code based on Jira tickets, but human engineers are responsible for final reviews and production deployment.
- The shift to agentic AI requires engineers to adapt to multitasking and asynchronous review processes.
- While not working more hours, the ability of AI to do more can lead to an intensified work experience due to increased review requirements and faster pace.