Manjunath Bhat leads software engineering research at Gartner and has been one of the most thoughtful voices tracking what AI is actually doing to the way we build software — not just the productivity story, but the structural changes to teams, platforms, and careers. He's a returning keynote speaker at apidays Singapore and apidays Australia.

In this conversation we cover:

• The shift from AI-augmented human work to agent-driven development — and why Manju deliberately avoids calling these tools "peer programmers"
• Why the prototype-to-production gap hasn't closed, and where the real friction still lives
• The hidden downside of vibe coding: when you fully offload to AI, you stop learning too
• How platform engineering is evolving from template-based governance to embedding intelligence directly into the development workflow
• The three mismatches platform teams now have to resolve: speed, determinism, and accountability
• What junior engineers should actually focus on as AI absorbs more entry-level work
• Why Gartner's position is that creativity — not productivity — will be the new measure of engineering excellence
  
  

Manju will be delivering a keynote at apidays Singapore, 14–15 April 2026.
Connect with Manju: linkedin.com/in/manjunathbhat
apidays Singapore 2026: apidays.global/singapore

TheLoopAsia: www.theloop.asia