Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Addy Osmani is Head of Chrome Developer Experience at Google, where he leads teams focused on improving performance, tooling, and the overall developer experience for building on the web. If you’ve ever opened Chrome’s Developer Tools bar, you’ve definitely used features Addy has built. He’s also the author of several books, including his latest, Beyond Vibe Coding, which explores how AI is changing software development.
In this episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I sit down with Addy to discuss how AI is reshaping software engineering workflows, the tradeoffs between speed and quality, and why understanding generated code remains critical. We dive into his article The 70% Problem, which explains why AI tools accelerate development but struggle with the final 30% of software quality—and why this last 30% is tackled easily by software engineers who understand how the system actually works.
—
*Brought to you by:*
• Statsig — The unified platform for flags, analytics, experiments, and more. Graphite is one example (statsig.com/customers/graphite) of a company that has built granular control and rapid iteration into their development workflow using Statsig. Today, Graphite runs more than 300 controlled rollouts at any given time, and have cut incident resolution times by 50% because of this. Read more about how Graphite uses Statsig and try it out yourself. statsig.com/pragmatic
• Linear – The system for modern product development. Vibe coding is having its moment: but what vibe coding doesn’t account for is institutional knowledge. Linear agents, on the other hand, work inside your team’s shared workspace. So when you ask an agent inside Linear to draft a PR or build a feature: it’s using the same context your team already does. See how agents work in Linear (https://linear.app/agents?utm_source=gergely&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=pragmatic-engineer) and give Linear a go to try it yourself. https://linear.app/pragmatic
—
*The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:*
• Vibe Coding as a software engineer newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/vibe-coding-as-a-software-engineer
• How AI-assisted coding will change software engineering: hard truths newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-ai-will-change-software-engineering
• AI Engineering in the real world newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ai-engineering-in-the-real-world
• The AI Engineering stack newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-ai-engineering-stack
• How Claude Code is built newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-claude-code-is-built
—
*Where to find Addy Osmani:*
• X: https://x.com/addyosmani
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/addyosmani
• Website: addyosmani.com
• Newsletter: addyo.substack.com
—
*In this episode, we cover:*
(00:00) Intro
(02:17) Vibe coding vs. AI-assisted engineering
(06:07) How Addy uses AI tools
(13:10) Addy’s learnings about applying AI for development
(18:47) Addy’s favorite tools
(22:15) The 70% Problem
(28:15) Tactics for efficient LLM usage
(32:58) How AI tools evolved
(34:29) The case for keeping expectations low and control high
(38:05) Autonomous agents and working with them
(42:49) How the EM and PM role changes with AI
(47:14) The rise of new roles and shifts in developer education
(48:11) The importance of critical thinking when working with AI
(54:08) LLMs as a tool for learning
(1:03:50) Rapid questions
—
See the transcript and other references from the episode at newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast
—
Production and marketing by penname.co/.
Addy Osmani is Head of Chrome Developer Experience at Google, where he leads teams focused on improving performance, tooling, and the overall developer experience for building on the web. If you’ve ever opened Chrome’s Developer Tools bar, you’ve definitely used features Addy has built. He’s also the author of several books, including his latest, Beyond Vibe Coding, which explores how AI is changing software development.
In this episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I sit down with Addy to discuss how AI is reshaping software engineering workflows, the tradeoffs between speed and quality, and why understanding generated code remains critical. We dive into his article The 70% Problem, which explains why AI tools accelerate development but struggle with the final 30% of software quality—and why this last 30% is tackled easily by software engineers who understand how the system actually works.
—
*Brought to you by:*
• Statsig — The unified platform for flags, analytics, experiments, and more. Graphite is one example (statsig.com/customers/graphite) of a company that has built granular control and rapid iteration into their development workflow using Statsig. Today, Graphite runs more than 300 controlled rollouts at any given time, and have cut incident resolution times by 50% because of this. Read more about how Graphite uses Statsig and try it out yourself. statsig.com/pragmatic
• Linear – The system for modern product development. Vibe coding is having its moment: but what vibe coding doesn’t account for is institutional knowledge. Linear agents, on the other hand, work inside your team’s shared workspace. So when you ask an agent inside Linear to draft a PR or build a feature: it’s using the same context your team already does. See how agents work in Linear (https://linear.app/agents?utm_source=gergely&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=pragmatic-engineer) and give Linear a go to try it yourself. https://linear.app/pragmatic
—
*The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:*
• Vibe Coding as a software engineer newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/vibe-coding-as-a-software-engineer
• How AI-assisted coding will change software engineering: hard truths newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-ai-will-change-software-engineering
• AI Engineering in the real world newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ai-engineering-in-the-real-world
• The AI Engineering stack newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-ai-engineering-stack
• How Claude Code is built newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-claude-code-is-built
—
*Where to find Addy Osmani:*
• X: https://x.com/addyosmani
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/addyosmani
• Website: addyosmani.com
• Newsletter: addyo.substack.com
—
*In this episode, we cover:*
(00:00) Intro
(02:17) Vibe coding vs. AI-assisted engineering
(06:07) How Addy uses AI tools
(13:10) Addy’s learnings about applying AI for development
(18:47) Addy’s favorite tools
(22:15) The 70% Problem
(28:15) Tactics for efficient LLM usage
(32:58) How AI tools evolved
(34:29) The case for keeping expectations low and control high
(38:05) Autonomous agents and working with them
(42:49) How the EM and PM role changes with AI
(47:14) The rise of new roles and shifts in developer education
(48:11) The importance of critical thinking when working with AI
(54:08) LLMs as a tool for learning
(1:03:50) Rapid questions
—
See the transcript and other references from the episode at newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast
—
Production and marketing by penname.co/.
