Live from Spark 2026: AI, Play and the Human in the Loop

About this episode

The episode discusses AI in development, the impact of maternity leave in an AI-transformed workplace, and the benefits of augmentation over automation.

Live from the Umbraco Spark Innovation Conference in Bristol! Emma, Laura and Lotte were joined by Phil Whittaker, AI Staff Engineer at Umbraco HQ - someone who's been thinking and talking about AI in development for longer than most. Together we talk about play as a superpower for developer learning, what returning from maternity leave looks like in an AI-transformed workplace, why developers approaching retirement are finding a second wind, and why augmentation beats automation every time. A massive thank you to our live audience for missing out on the sunshine and making it so fun to record! Links: Umbraco Spark: https://umbracospark.com/ Phil Whittaker's blog: https://dev.to/phil-whittaker

People in this episode

Hosts: Emma, Laura, Lotte

Guest: Phil Whittaker

Topics covered

• AI in development
• developer learning
• maternity leave
• workplace transformation
• augmentation vs automation

Keywords

• AI
• developer learning
• maternity leave
• augmentation
• automation
• Umbraco
• Spark Conference

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Umbraco

Places: Bristol

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