Co-pilot, not auto-pilot
Everyone assumes engineers are the first to adopt new tech. But when AI hype exploded, I dragged my feet.
I wasn’t sure if it was another overhyped wave or something quietly rewriting how we work. Would it make me more effective or obsolete? What would I even use it for?
This talk shares my journey from healthy skepticism to thoughtful adoption, and the real-world use cases we’ve found valuable inside a fast-moving product company. From engineering to marketing to product, I’ll walk through where AI has genuinely helped us build faster, make better decisions and where we’ve deliberately chosen not to use it.
More importantly, I’ll talk about how we stay human in the process. That includes avoiding the AI feedback loop (e.g AI writing LinkedIn posts for other AIs to comment on), designing AI-assisted experiences that feel useful, and helping teams use AI as a tool, not a crutch.
It’s a candid, practical talk for engineers and leaders figuring out where AI fits into real work not just job descriptions.
Dave Berner
Dave Berner is co-founder of Kinde, a developer-first platform for authentication, billing, and feature flags.
Still very hands on, he favours fundamentals over frameworks and simplicity over clever code.
He works whilst listening to super aggressive music (or super chill - he doesn’t mess around in the middle).
He lives in Byron Bay with his family, where he does his best thinking far from screens usually around a fire with a good whiskey.
Dave tweets at