As coding agents become increasingly powerful, engineering teams face questions that go far beyond productivity. How do you move from AI-assisted coding to truly agentic software engineering without becoming locked into individual models, platforms or providers? And if AI takes over more of the routine coding work, how do engineers develop the technical depth and judgment they will need in the future?
In this interview with Digitale Leute founder Stefan Vosskötter, Sven Schirmer from MaibornWolff explores what AI-native software engineering means for large tech organizations. They discuss technological independence in an AI-driven world, the changing skills and roles of software engineers and one of the biggest questions for the industry: How do we train the next generation of senior engineers when AI increasingly takes over the tasks juniors traditionally learned from?
Director Platform & Portals at MaibornWolff.
Sven Schirmer is Director Platform & Portals at MaibornWolff. Previously, he spent more than 18 years as Head of Quality Engineering, building and leading the company’s Quality Engineering practice. As an Executive Consultant, he helps organizations establish quality as a continuous value driver throughout the software development lifecycle. His current focus is on GenAI and Autonomous Agentic Coding across the entire development process, from strategic planning to hands-on implementation. Sven is convinced that AI will fundamentally transform how software is built and validated.
Founder of Digitale Leute.
Stefan is the founder of Digitale Leute and Deutsche Startups. Since 2005, he has successfully founded various internet startups and has mostly taken the product owner role in these projects. With Digitale Leute he and his team provide deep insights into the different job roles in digital product development and how the world’s greatest companies develop their software products.
