AI-First Engineering. Same Old Bottlenecks? | Panel Discussion

AI can generate code in minutes. But can your engineering organization confidently ship it just as fast?

Join us at Superhuman (formerly Grammarly)’s new Berlin hub at Potsdamer Platz for a panel discussion with four engineering leaders on the opportunities and challenges of AI-first development.

The event brings together senior engineering leaders who build and lead teams, shape engineering practices, and drive decisions about how their organizations develop and ship software. Expect practical insights, honest conversations, and a chance to meet others tackling similar challenges. We'll wrap up with drinks and time to connect after the panel.

💬 What we’ll discuss

As companies invest in AI coding tools and agents, producing code is becoming faster. But the familiar bottlenecks between writing code and getting it safely into production remain: slow CI, flaky tests, long builds, manual reviews, fragile environments, and cumbersome paths to production.

So what happens when producing code is no longer the bottleneck, but shipping it safely still is? This panel will look at how pre-existing issues can slow down software development in the age of AI tools.

⏱️ Agenda

• 18:00–18:30 — Doors open | drinks and light bites
• 18:30–19:30 — Panel discussion
• 19:30–20:30 — Food, cocktails, and networking

🎙️ Panelists

• Caitriona Bermingham, Head of Engineering at Zalando

Caitriona leads the Customer Care engineering domain and operates at the practical edge of AI adoption—shipping AI-powered products, embedding AI into engineering workflows, and rethinking team growth and hiring as tools evolve faster than organizations can keep up. Her focus is on the unglamorous side of AI engineering: delivery discipline, team health, and the human bottlenecks that don’t disappear just because the technology gets smarter.

• Andrew Garkavyi, Head of Engineering at Superhuman

Andrew is an engineering leader with over 15 years of experience building software products and leading teams. At Superhuman (formerly Grammarly), he scaled user-platform teams to support tens of millions of daily users and strengthened engineering operations as the company grew threefold. Earlier in his career, he launched award-winning mobile apps and built IoT solutions for the hospitality industry.

• Thomas Neil, Engineering Lead, Translation Quality at DeepL

Thomas is a hands-on engineering lead working on Translation Quality at DeepL. He was previously part of an internal team developing an experimental computer-use agent and worked on automating and scaling labeling processes. He is also a member of the internal AI Velocity Council, helping accelerate DeepL’s AI software factory, cross-functional AI adoption, and agent deployments.

• Sebastian Lau, Co-Founder & CTO at doctorly

Sebastian co-founded doctorly in 2017 and remains a people-first, hands-on CTO. He is scaling its platform by migrating to a multi-tenant architecture, enabling doctorly to onboard more customers at lower infrastructure costs. He uses AI to accelerate the entire SDLC, from specification through deployment, and leads doctorly’s integration work with Germany’s Telematics Infrastructure (TI). Previously, he spent 15 years contracting across industries for clients including Disney, O2, Mylan, Unilever, and Coca-Cola, often migrating legacy systems to new platforms.

📍 Location

We’ll meet at Superhuman’s new Berlin hub at Das Center, Potsdamer Platz. Once a cinema in the former Sony Center, the space has been transformed into a modern hub for AI development. It’s also opening its doors for meetups and events, bringing people from Berlin’s tech community together to exchange ideas and connect.

🎟️ Registration & Attendance

This event is designed for tech leaders who manage teams, shape engineering strategy, or oversee software delivery at scale. To ensure a valuable networking experience for all attendees, capacity is limited, and priority will be given to professionals with relevant engineering leadership experience. Please note that registration is subject to confirmation. We'll notify you once your spot is confirmed.

Please be advised that video recording will take place during the event. Selected footage may be used for event documentation, corporate communications, and promotional purposes, including publication on social media.