Software Engineering with LLMs in 2025: Insights from LeadDev's LDX3 Conference 🤖

How are devs at AI startups and in Big Tech using AI tools, and what do they think of them? A broad overview of the state of play in tooling, with Anthropic, Google, Amazon, and long-time software engineers, including Kent Beck, Martin Fowler, and others.

Recorded at the LDX3 conference in London, on 16 June (https://leaddev.com/leaddev-london/). Read the accompanying article, published in The Pragmatic Engineer https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/software-engineering-with-llms-in-2025

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The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this talk:

• MCP Protocol: a new AI dev tools building block https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/mcp

• Real-world engineering challenges: building Cursor https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/cursor

• Vibe Coding as a software engineer https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/vibe-coding-as-a-software-engineer

• Microsoft is dogfooding AI dev tools’ future https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/microsoft-ai-dev-tools

• Inside Amazon's Engineering Culture https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/amazon

• Building Windsurf with Varun Mohan https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-windsurf-with-varun-mohan

• Inside Sourcegraph’s Engineering Culture https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/inside-sourcegraphs-engineering-culture

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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:47) AI dev tools startups
(06:28) Big Tech
(12:12) AI startups
(15:14) Seasoned software engineers
(19:45) Open questions