Treating AI as just another tool to slot into your dev process is not the way forward. Your agile team, with those siloed defined roles, is not how software is going to be built.

Successful AI adoption demands a mindset far more flexible than you're used to. One without fixed assumptions about how things should be done. You had it when you started out. Zen Buddhists call it "beginner's mind" and it's installed naturally in junior developers. They don't have fixed ideas about roles or pipelines. Their openness is exactly why you should be hiring them.

Instead, you're cutting them.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few. - Shunryu Suzuki

Consider this fictional scenario. Grace is a junior programmer who has just started in your team. She is 22, fresh out of Uni with a degree in Computer Science (AI and machine learning). She's been using ChatGPT since she was 19 and as part of her degree has used AI coding tools extensively. As a solo developer she's built 5 productivity apps using Claude Code and one of them is really starting to take off.

Grace is at the end of her induction week. Steve, a senior developer and Grace's mentor, wants to know what she's learned.

Steve: What have you learnt this week about how the team works and how we ship code to production?

Grace: Everyone has been really nice, really helpful. I have a good idea what everyone is doing, but I don't really understand why the team is set up like it is. I think you could be way more efficient

Steve: Ok… what do you mean?

Grace: Well, you're using Claude Code and I really like that. It's what I use, but the developers seem kinda stuck by having to check with the product owner all the time and I don't get why you have that job when the developer can just work it out.

Steve: Why do we have Product Owners? They are essential. We can't just get rid of Product Owners

Grace: Oh no. I didn't mean get rid of them. It just seems a waste of time to have somebody write stories about how a feature works, when the developer can just do that directly with Claude. That's what I do with my apps. I know exactly what I want them to do. It just seems weird your developers wouldn't know that?

Steve: It's very different writing an app as a single developer than writing enterprise software as a team. You'll understand why that is as time goes on, but just take it from me that we need all the roles as they are. Out of interest, what would you do with the Product Owners?

Grace: I'd make them developers

Steve: What! We can't just turn product owners into developers

Grace: Why not? They know more about the product than anyone and wouldn't that be super helpful and more efficient?

Steve: It's just not something you would do. I can't have non-technical people developing code. It would be a disaster and how would the other developers feel about that?

Grace: I dunno. They'd be happy to have more developers helping out?

Steve: Grace. You really don't understand the roles in the team and how we build software. That was the main thing I wanted you to understand from your first week. A developer is a highly specialised and skilled job. It needs years of training and experience to even become a junior like you. You need to understand a hundred concepts, to know what is and isn't good code. I could go on and on about the skills you need. I can't allow someone who isn't a developer to sit at an AI prompt and pollute the codebase.

Grace: I know there are hooks and third party tools you can use to help stop that, I've implemented them myself. I could show you how it works

Steve: I know how it works. I mean I have Dave, who works for me, who is responsible for looking into all that. It's got a lot of limitations you probably aren't aware of. But look I think it's good you brought it up, but it's just not something we would look at doing. We have a really good Agile process worked out and a great team. We don't need to change any of that, we just need to work out the best way to integrate AI into what is currently working. It must be a lot for you to take in. You'll get a better idea of how things work and why they work the way they do after a while.

Grace: OK. I had some other ideas about the devops guys and the testers too if you want to hear?

Steve: Sure, sure. We can pick that up at our next catch up, but I think it's better you spend some more time understanding how we do things before making suggestions. Once you learn our way of doing things, you'll see what I mean.

What is Steve's responsibility to the company he works for? Is it to protect a process he knows is not fit for purpose? Protect role identities so people don't feel upset? Protect his own identity?

What Steve should do, takes courage. But that's why he's a Senior. Seniors are leaders. Leaders are expected to fully understand the landscape they're operating in and chart the best way forward, for the team and the company. You can't do that wearing blinkers.

Uncomfortable? Often. Rewarding? Always.