[AI Week] Software Factories: The Next Evolution of Software Development

AI coding agents have fundamentally changed how software is written, but the real opportunity is much bigger than making individual developers more productive. Software factories represent the next evolution: systems of specialized AI agents that work together to plan, design, architect, build, test, review, and deploy software. Rather than using AI to accelerate individual coding tasks, software factories automate entire development workflows. In this talk, John Kennedy, Founder and CEO of Actual AI, explores how software factories work, what makes them different from today's AI coding assistants, and why they have the potential to dramatically reduce the cost and time required to build software. Drawing on practical experience building and teaching software factories, John will examine what these systems can do today, where they still struggle, and how engineering organizations can begin adopting them. The central question is no longer just how we make developers more productive with AI, but how we build software development systems that continuously produce reliable, maintainable software with increasingly less human intervention. Speaker Bio John Kennedy, Founder & CEO, Actual AI John Kennedy is the Founder and CEO of Actual AI, a Seattle-based company building AI-native engineering management and governance tools for software development. Previously, John was Head of Product for AWS GameTech and has spent over 20 years building and leading B2B software businesses, including 13 years working with venture-backed startups. John is also the founder of softwarefactory.org, an initiative advancing education and best practices for AI-powered software engineering. He organizes Seattle's AI Tinkerers Dev Tools community, which has over 4,000 members, and leads hands-on Software Factory Intensive workshops across the United States, helping engineering teams from fortune 500 companies transition from AI-assisted coding to autonomous software development. 📍 Thinkspace Seattle, 1700 Westlake Ave N #200, Seattle, WA 98109, on Lake Union -- Part of Seattle AI Week, hosted at Thinkspace in partnership with Skillsheet. Full calendar: https://luma.com/thinkspace Please note: 1. By participating in the event, you agree to being in pictures or videos that may be published on our website, our partner's website or social media. 2. Our sponsors may message you about their offerings before or after the event. By RSVPing or attending the event, you agree to being contacted. You can opt out at any time.