Agents of Dev - AI, Agent & Agentic Development
The Agents of Dev Podcast explores how software developers build and will build applications in the era of AI, agents, and agentic technologies. Futurum Research analysts Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin bring their dual perspectives as industry analysts and practitioners to unpack what industry moves, vendor strategies, and on-the-ground engineering realities signal about the future of enterprise software. Each episode explores innovations, opportunities, and even oopsies to inform us about how AI-native development is reshaping the work of planning, designing, building, deploying, and operating software. Part of the Futurum Group family of podcasts.
The Agents of Dev Podcast explores how software developers build and will build applications in the era of AI, agents, and agentic technologies. Futurum Research analysts Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin bring their dual perspectives as industry analysts and practitioners to unpack what industry moves, vendor strategies, and on-the-ground engineering realities signal about the future of enterprise software. Each episode explores innovations, opportunities, and even oopsies to inform us about how AI-native development is reshaping the work of planning, designing, building, deploying, and operating software. Part of the Futurum Group family of podcasts.
Episodes

4 days ago
4 days ago
58 min
Email your questions and topics to the podcast here.
When monthly developer commits surge fivefold to over 7.3 billion in a single year, the traditional software development lifecycle isn't just bending under the weight of automation—it's breaking.
In this episode of Agents of Dev, hosts Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin dissect the seismic platform shifts surfacing from GitHub Universe and Oracle AI World.
From autonomous agent swarms turning pull requests into high-frequency continuous saves to Oracle’s Deep Trust AI embedding enterprise governance directly into database engines, traditional silos across code, runtime, and data are collapsing.
Mitch and Brad evaluate why brittle markdown "skills" fall short of true enterprise architecture, assess the urgent need for automated CVE remediation engines like Google Gemini Carbon and Red Hat Lightwell, test-drive multi-agent terminal stacks powered by Ghostty and Jev, and pay tribute to Star Trek’s Captain Picard on what it takes to evolve when old systems reach their breaking point.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Media Podcast Network.
4 days ago
58 min

Oct 22, 2026
Oct 22, 2026
1 hr 1 min
Email your questions and topics to the podcast here.
Have you ever yelled at an AI model out of frustration? Anthropic's new Terms of Service might make you think twice!
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin dive into the latest tectonic shifts in the tech industry, starting with IBM's newly minted 4-part AI operational model and a heated debate on whether NVIDIA is positioned to be the "next IBM."
The hosts also explore the psychological, technical, and marketing implications behind Anthropic banning "cruelty" toward its models.
Plus, discover a handy new tool for sizing hardware for local LLMs, learn why KV caching is the new bottleneck in the AI economy, and find out how databases like Supabase are completely re-architecting for the agentic AI era.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Media Podcast Network.
Oct 22, 2026
1 hr 1 min

Oct 15, 2026
Oct 15, 2026
43 min
We are pouring $8 trillion into AI data centers, but history reveals a brutal truth: the companies building the physical infrastructure almost never capture the lasting wealth.
In this episode of Agents of Dev, hosts Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin sit down with tech founder and bestselling author Alan Shimel to break down his book, The Indispensability Trap.
Comparing today’s AI frenzy to the massive historical build-outs of the railroads, electrification, telecom monopolies, and the dot-com dark fiber bust, Alan explains how Jevons Paradox forces value to flee the infrastructure layer and migrate "up the stack."
The trio also tackles whether software engineers are facing obsolescence or evolution, how "vibe coding" changes development, and why AI search threatens the core business model of online media.
Check out Alan Shimel's book, The Indispensability Trap. available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of the Futurum Media Podcast Network.
Oct 15, 2026
43 min

Oct 8, 2026
Oct 8, 2026
54 min
Email your questions and topics to the podcast here.
As AI agents move from experimental prompts to autonomous production workflows, developers are facing a brand-new set of infrastructure, governance, and safety challenges.
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin break down takeaways from Microsoft FabCon in Barcelona, highlighting the rise of autonomous database management agents and the industry-wide shift toward lightweight agent sandboxing.
The duo dives deep into Google’s Argon 4 release—evaluating its bold trade-off of raw benchmark scores to slash hallucination rates down to 15%—and unpack OpenAI’s Dev Days updates like ChatGPT Space and Dots. Finally, in "The Drop," Mitch explores NVIDIA’s hardware-enforced Open Agent Safety Platform, while Brad shares his hands-on testing with Jev, a ultra-fast "System 1" decisioning model redefining task routing.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Media Podcast Network.
Oct 8, 2026
54 min

Oct 1, 2026
Oct 1, 2026
44 min
Email your questions and topics to the podcast here.
Are bloated frontier models already becoming obsolete for everyday enterprise workflows?
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin break down fresh takeaways straight off the plane from Salesforce Dreamforce and the Neo4J Graph Summit.
They dive into Salesforce’s new COA model and headless architecture, how graph databases provide the critical "meaning, reach, and memory" needed for agentic AI, recent security headlines surrounding AI-assisted breaches, and why ultra-focused state decision models like JEV might change the economics of AI forever.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Podcast Network.
Oct 1, 2026
44 min

Sep 24, 2026
Sep 24, 2026
42 min
Email your questions and topics to the podcast here.
Is the fear of world-ending AGI a genuine existential threat, or just aggressive marketing designed to protect a massive AI investment bubble?
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin cut through the industry noise to examine how software development is actually evolving on the ground.
They unpack key market moves from Cloudera’s partnership with Mistral to Atlassian’s agentic workflow ecosystem, before diving into a technical breakdown of developer harnesses like Pi and Maki.
From managing token economics and context bloat to tackling AI’s "Memento-like" short-term memory struggles, Mitch and Brad share practical insights on how developers can maintain control over their AI toolchains.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Podcast Network.
Sep 24, 2026
42 min

Sep 17, 2026
Sep 17, 2026
49 min
Is AI heading toward a dystopian sci-fi nightmare, or are we just watching market hype mask the real architectural shifts happening in software engineering?
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin move past the polarities of AI doomerism vs. pure hype to tackle the pragmatic reality of agentic workflows.
They analyze Cloudera’s enterprise sovereignty partnership with Mistral, examine Atlassian’s push into agentic SDLC management, and take a deep dive into the world of developer harnesses—comparing setups like Pi, Aider, and Maki. Along the way, they unpack context tokenomics, cash ownership, and why managing LLM memory often feels like living out the movie Memento.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Podcast Network.
Sep 17, 2026
49 min

Sep 10, 2026
Sep 10, 2026
52 min
Email your questions and topics to the podcast here.
Are enterprise AI budgets running out of control while agentic models pretend to finish tasks they haven't actually completed?
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin tackle the biggest developments across cloud infrastructure, AI behavior engineering, and enterprise data strategy.
They start with AWS’s acquisition of Duck Labs and what embedding DuckDB directly into storage tiers means for the open-source ecosystem. Next, they unpack the issue of AI "phantom completeness" and how new tools like the Unlazy extension enforce behavioral discipline on agents.
The pair also analyze Brad’s newly published Data Intelligence Platforms Signal report, break down Bill Gates’ 6,000-word call for AI guardrails and job protections, and discuss the "fund AI anyway" spending habits shaping IT budgets in 2026.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Podcast Network.
Sep 10, 2026
52 min

Sep 3, 2026
Sep 3, 2026
49 min
Unvetted AI code generation in your software pipeline is like handing a construction apprentice the keys to a wrecking crane—it might get the job done, but it could just as easily knock down the entire building.
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin sit down with open source pioneer Tracy Ragan (CEO of DeployHub and Ortilius community leader) to dissect the state of the modern software supply chain.
Tracy breaks down why hardcoded scripts continue to paralyze DevOps evolution, how global vulnerability collection laws are reshaping cybersecurity risk, and why "reachability" matters more than static SBOM scans.
Together, the team explores the inevitable shift from bloated frontier models to lean, domain-specific small language models, proving why human collaboration still forms the ultimate zero-trust defense.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Group Podcast Network.
Sep 3, 2026
49 min

Aug 27, 2026
Aug 27, 2026
48 min
Are constantly shifting AI models and phantom fixes driving you to throw away hours of work?
In this episode of Agents of Dev, Mitch Ashley and Brad Shimmin dive into the real-world frustrations of developer toolchain chaos, model instability, and aggressive pricing shifts in the race for AI dominance. Brad highlights Oracle’s new APEX AI Application Generator and APEX Lang framework, while Mitch breaks down Dynatrace’s acquisition of Arise and why observability must anchor itself at the intent stage.
Together, they demystify what actually defines a developer sandbox, test-drive Unsloth’s new agentic desktop harness, and examine Atlassian’s Code Context updates—offering a much-needed dose of tech therapy for software builders navigating today's rapid model churn.
This and more on Agents of Dev, part of The Futurum Group Podcast Network.
Aug 27, 2026
48 min







