AI has made building software dramatically faster. The problem is that the rest of the engineering system hasn’t caught up.



AI agents can now produce code, tests, documentation, migrations, and pull requests at a pace most engineering organisations weren’t designed to handle. But when everything around code review accelerates, review becomes the bottleneck. Pull requests pile up, reviewers spend more time reconstructing intent, and experienced engineers can end up reduced to repeatedly saying yes or sending work back for fixes.

Adam Horner explores why making code review faster isn’t enough. The deeper problem is that teams are often reviewing the output instead of the decisions that produced it. The episode looks back at the evolution of compilers, when engineers moved from inspecting machine code to trusting verified outcomes, and asks whether AI-assisted development is creating a similar shift in software engineering.

The answer is a move upstream. Instead of relying on code review to recover intent, teams can review the goal, requirements, constraints, boundaries, invariants, architecture, and increasingly the agent definitions and context that guide how software gets built.

Adam calls this “building the builder.” The idea is simple: when something goes wrong, don’t just fix the output. Improve the system that produced it so every future change benefits.

Build your own CTO Playbook atwww.theCTOplaybook.com, the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.

You’ll Learn:

[0:00] Why AI-powered development is creating a new review bottleneck

[4:07] What the history of compilers teaches us about AI engineering

[8:26] Why faster code review doesn’t solve the real problem

[12:10] Moving engineering review upstream to intent and design

[16:22] Building the builder and improving the development system

The CTO Playbook:

■ Build your own CTO Playbook athttps://www.thectoplaybook.com, the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey, coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.

■ Follow Adam:https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamhorner/

■ YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TheCTOplaybook

■ Prefer listening? Catch the podcast:https://bit.ly/thectoplaybook