Max Kanat-Alexander is an Executive Distinguished Engineer at Capital One, where he helps lead developer experience and AI-assisted software development.

In this episode of Engineering Enablement, Max joins Brian Houck to discuss how AI is changing software development and why strong engineering fundamentals matter more than ever. They explore how engineering skills are evolving, why AI can amplify weaknesses in the development lifecycle, and how teams should rethink code review, quality, and testing.

Max also shares how leaders can assess whether their organizations are ready for more advanced AI workflows and why developing the next generation of senior engineers remains one of the biggest open questions in software engineering.

Where to find Max Kanat-Alexander:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkanat 

• X: https://x.com/mkanat 

• Blog: https://www.codesimplicity.com 

Where to find Brian Houck: 

• LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianhouck⁠

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Intro

(01:54) Max’s role at Capital One

(02:52) Where to invest in engineering organizations  

(06:36) The new entry-level engineering skills to pay attention to 

(10:39) Why deepening your understanding still matters 

(12:29) The bottlenecks around code review 

(19:40) Why human code reviews still have value 

(25:20) Why not all PRs need human review

(26:11) The vicious cycle of AI-driven development

(30:13) Using LLMs for refactoring 

(33:58) AI readiness and why fixing engineering systems is so hard

(38:42) Why research is needed on creating good senior engineers

(41:00) Why AI will increase the need for engineers

Referenced:

• DX Core 4 Productivity Framework

• Capital One 

• Code Review Guidelines at Google 

• Code Simplicity by Max Kanat-Alexander

• How Microsoft sees engineering bottlenecks changing with AI