Michael Avrahamov, VP of Engineering at ServiceNow, joins Mala Ramakrishnan to discuss what it really takes to lead large engineering teams in the age of AI.

From early startup work building developer platforms to leadership roles at Siebel, Oracle, and now ServiceNow, Michael shares how he built a niche in observability and reliability engineering—and why falling in love with hard technical problems shaped his career.

The conversation dives deep into AI-assisted coding, the risks of auto-generated code, IP concerns, and whether locking down engineers slows innovation. Michael also unpacks how ServiceNow infused AI into discovery, CMDB, and ITSM workflows—and what it means to scale responsibly with 170+ engineers.

If you’re a founder, engineering leader, or developer navigating AI productivity tools, governance, and code quality, this episode is packed with practical insight.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro and Michael’s journey into tech

01:00 Early startup days and developer platforms

02:20 Discoverability, observability, and reliability focus

03:40 From Siebel to Oracle to ServiceNow

05:00 Reverse engineering the JVM and deep debugging

06:40 ServiceNow’s early AI efforts before GenAI

08:00 The ChatGPT pivot and accelerating product development

09:30 Infusing AI as a co-pilot into product workflows

10:50 Automating ITSM tickets with AI agents

12:00 Managing a 170-engineer organization

13:00 AI adoption vs locking down engineers

14:30 Preparing internal systems for AI usefulness

15:50 Where AI actually improved productivity

17:00 The 2 million lines of AI-generated code problem

18:30 Code quality, review discipline, and verification risks

19:40 Should AI intentionally inject errors to test humans?

20:30 Freedom vs governance in AI usage

21:40 Prioritizing roadmap vs one-off customer demands

23:00 Startup advice: protect focus and your moat

24:00 Final thoughts on leadership in the AI era

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🔗 Connect with Michael Avrahamov → https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelavr/

🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan

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