Interview with David O'Connell

Software Developer & AI Practitioner

What’s one major AI research trend or technology you believe students or researchers should be paying attention to at this moment?

David O’Connell: For me, it’s agentic AI systems. I believe they’re going to change everything - the way we approach problems and how we transform businesses. They’ll be incredibly valuable.

Agentic AI has been touted as being capable of replacing jobs. How do you feel about that? Do you think that’s realistic?

David O’Connell: I don’t view it as replacing jobs. I see it as freeing up people to do more useful work. I also believe that any of these systems still involve a human in the loop. They become a tool to augment someone’s productivity, not to totally replace them.

Are there any AI field tools or trends that you think are over-appreciated?

David O’Connell: I feel that way about the entire generative AI and agentic field. They are very advanced, very useful, but I still feel that a person needs to be there to monitor the output and ensure the quality is what you need. Saying that this is going to replace people’s jobs is not correct. They’re going to be very important tools, but they’re still tools.

Are there any cross-disciplinary skills that you think have helped you a lot in your software development and AI career?

David O’Connell: Sure, so soft skills are definitely very important. One of the things that has gotten me to where I am is just the ability to talk to people and communicate. It’s very helpful for all developers to be able to talk to people and understand business problems, understand the value you get from solving them, and understand how to solve them, not just from a technical point of view, but from the point of view of actually creating a solution that’s useful to your end users.

Is there any advice you can give to someone who maybe is aware they’re not very good with soft skills and they want to work on that aspect of their career?

David O’Connell: Yes, just dive in and start talking to people. I know some people are more shy and they don’t like doing that. Earlier in my career, I was always hesitant to talk to folks, and you build up these scenarios that aren’t going to happen. If you just talk to people and practice that as a skill, it’ll be fine.

Is there any particular experience or project that you did that was really beneficial to where you ended up today?

David O’Connell: I find participating in public talks and giving seminars, and getting in front of people was immensely helpful. So, the projects themselves, it’s hard to identify just one, but getting in front of people and talking about your ideas was immensely helpful.

If you had 60 seconds to give one piece of advice to an aspiring software and AI student, what would you say?

David O’Connell: From my viewpoint as a more traditional software developer, my advice would be: don’t be scared of that. Embrace that. It’s going to free you from a lot of the minutiae and a lot of the tedious work to do higher-level work. So, really learn how to use those tools, don’t fight them, and build your skills in talking to people, understanding problems, and understanding how to deliver value. And also, build your skills in high-level architecture.

What’s your favorite AI resource or tool that you always use? And how do you stay up-to-date with AI?

David O’Connell: So, I do a lot of reading. Like TLDR—they kind of take and put together that list of articles for you. I also like Technology Radar. And I’ve replaced straight Google searches with a tool called Perplexity. I like Perplexity quite a bit because it pulls together pretty high-quality solutions, with the asterisk that you should never rely totally on it; you should do the research yourself.