The 'age of intent' is a phrase that's been around for a number of years. However, with the rise of AI agents in 2025 it has the potential to become a key trend for 2026. It describes a new way of thinking about digital interaction in which the gap between human intention and output are reduced even further through AI assistance.

Thoughtworks' APAC CTO Sarah Taraporewalla has been exploring the age of intent in recent months; she's written a series of blog posts that tackle what this new phase of digital interaction means for businesses and how they can prepare themselves.

On the latest episode of the Technology Podcast, Sarah joins host Lilly Ryan to discuss the concept the age of intent and its implications for the future of digital experiences.

Read Sara Taraporewalla's series on the age of intent:

The interface is dead. Time for the age of intent: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-interface-is-dead-time-for-the-age-of-intent

From prototype to transformation: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-age-of-intent-from-prototype-to-transformation

What it takes to become an intent-ready organization: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-age-of-intent-from-prototype-to-transformation

Rethinking value in the AI economy: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/generative-ai/the-age-of-intent-rethinking-value-in-AI-economy

This year's DORA report focuses on AI-assisted software development. While one of the key themes is just how ubiquitous AI is today in software engineering, that's only part of the picture. In fact, the report outlines many of the challenges the adoption of these technologies are posing and explores the barriers and obstacles that need to be addressed to ensure AI-assistance leads to long-term success.

In this episode of the Technology Podcast, host Ken Mugrage is joined by Chris Westerhold — Global Practice Director for Engineering Excellence at Thoughtworks — to discuss this year's DORA report (for which Thoughtworks is a Platinum sponsor). They dive into some of the reports findings, and explore the risks of increasing throughput, the changing demands on software developers, the importance of developer experience and how organizations can go about successfully measuring AI impact.

You can find the 2025 DORA report here: https://cloud.google.com/resources/content/2025-dora-ai-assisted-software-development-report

Read Chris Westerhold's article on this year's findings: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/articles/the-dora-report-2025--a-thoughtworks-perspective

Vibe coding was, remarkably, named word of the year by the Collins English Dictionary at the start of November 2025 — pretty good going for a term that was only coined in February. We first discussed it on the Technology Podcast back in April, and, given its prominence in the collective lexicon this year, thought we should revisit and reflect on the topic as 2025 draws to a close.

Lots has happened in the intervening months: MCP adoption, the evolution of agentic coding tools and practices like context engineering have had a significant impact on the way the world is thinking about and using AI.

To talk about it all and reflect on the implications, Thoughtworkers and regular podcast hosts Prem Chandrasekaran, Lilly Ryan and Neal Ford reconvened for a follow up to our April conversation. Taking in everything from the term's semantic slipperiness, its security risks and the challenges of maintaining AI-generated code, this is a discussion that, despite going deep into vibe coding, also touches on a huge range of issues in the technology industry today.

Before we enter 2026, looking back on the good, the bad and the ugly of the last 12 months of experimentation is essential if we're to build better software for the world in the future. This episode aims to be a guide through that process.

Listen to our April episode on vibe coding: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/podcasts/technology-podcasts/vibe-coding

Read Ken Mugrage's blog post exploring the shift from vibe coding to context engineering in 2025: https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/machine-learning-and-ai/vibe-coding-context-engineering-2025-software-development