Nathen Harvey, who leads the DORA research program at Google Cloud, joins Ganesh Datta to explore how AI is reshaping software delivery—and why the fundamentals matter more than ever. Nathen shares insights from DORA's 2025 report on AI adoption, the surprising finding that AI acts as an amplifier of both good and bad practices, and the critical shift teams must make from chasing elite performance to driving elite improvement.

Nathen and Ganesh discuss value stream mapping as a planning tool for 2026, why SLOs are becoming more important in an AI-first world, the trust paradox in AI adoption, how to use AI as a catalyst for cultural change, and why measuring lines of code generated by AI misses the point entirely. They also explore how foundational practices like working in small batches, strong version control, and user-centric focus become even more valuable when AI is writing more of your code.