In this special episode of the Engineering Enablement podcast, recorded live at LeadDev London, DX CTO Laura Tacho explores the growing gap between AI headlines and the reality inside engineering teams—and what leaders can do to close it.

Laura shares data from nearly 39,000 developers across 184 companies, highlights the Core 4 and introduces the AI Measurement Framework, and offers a practical playbook for using data to improve developer experience, measure AI’s true impact, and build better software without compromising long-term performance.

Where to find Laura Tacho:

• X: https://x.com/rhein_wein

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauratacho/

• Website: https://lauratacho.com/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Intro: Laura’s keynote from LDX3

(01:44) The problem with asking how much faster can we go with AI?

(03:02) How the disappointment gap creates barriers to AI adoption

(06:20) What AI adoption looks like at top-performing organizations

(07:53) What leaders must do to turn AI into meaningful impact

(10:50) Why building better software with AI still depends on fundamentals

(12:03) An overview of the DX Core 4 Framework

(13:22) Why developer experience is the biggest performance lever

(15:12) How Block used Core 4 and DXI to identify 500,000 hours in time savings

(16:08) How to get started with Core 4

(17:32) Measuring AI with the AI Measurement Framework

(21:45) Final takeaways and how to get started with confidence

Referenced:

• LDX3 by LeadDev | The Festival of Software Engineering Leadership | London
• Software engineering with LLMs in 2025: reality check
• SPACE framework, PRs per engineer, AI research
• The AI adoption playbook: Lessons from Microsoft's internal strategy
• DX Core 4 Productivity Framework
• Nicole Forsgren
• Margaret-Anne Storey
• Dropbox.com
• Etsy
• Pfizer
• Drew Houston - Dropbox | LinkedIn
• Block
• Cursor
• Dora.dev
• Sourcegraph
• Booking.com