Welcome to this Cloud Wars Agent and Copilot Update. In these discussions, I’ll be analyzing opportunities, impact, and outcomes possible with AI; today’s focus is on AI’s impact on the software development process.
Highlights
00:22 — In traditional enterprise software development, ideas go into backlogs, turn into roadmaps, and customers wait months for results. AI is a game-changer, enabling ideas to be turned into execution without waiting for sprints or developers.
01:32 — At Anthropic, a product team responded to unexpected user behavior using AI. Users were using a developer tool, Claude Code, for tasks unrelated to software dev, which would typically go into a backlog for future consideration. Instead, a small team wrapped the existing capability with a simple interface using AI, then shipped it in roughly 10 days.
02:28 — Cloud Wars contributor Toni Witt recently recounted a customer’s feature request during a sales call. In the old model, the request would go into a CRM, be triaged, and possibly make a roadmap, with the customer waiting for months. In this case, an engineer used AI to build the feature during the meeting, demoing it live 28 minutes later, collapsing the feedback loop.
03:25 — There are three key differences between the new approach and traditional agile: the disappearing skill bottleneck, cheaper exploration, and showing rather than describing. Non-developers like product managers, sales reps, and customer success leads can now explore ideas directly, reducing the need for engineering resources. Failure becomes cheaper, and learning happens faster, as teams can generate and test variations before committing to engineering.
04:16 — Roadmaps still define direction, principles, and guardrails, but execution now responds to real intent rather than guesses from backlogs. The competitive question for platform players like Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and Anthropic is who enables their customers to turn real intent into execution safely and quickly.
More Microsoft and AI Agent Insights:
- Copilot’s Advantage vs. Stand-Alone Chatbots
- Microsoft Agent 365: The Platform That Keeps CIOs in Charge As Agents Proliferate
AI Agent & Copilot Summit is an AI-first event to define opportunities, impact, and outcomes with Microsoft Copilot and agents. Building on its 2025 success, the 2026 event takes place March 17-19 in San Diego. Get more details.
Kenny Mullican
CIO
Paragon Films
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