AI, Tech Debt, and the Future of Engineering - Alex Ter-Zakhariants

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In this episode of SphereCast, we sit down with Alex Ter-Zakhariants, Field CTO at Sphere, to dive deep into how artificial intelligence is transforming software development, infrastructure resilience, and the battle against technical debt.

With 20+ years of experience across startups and large enterprises, Alex shares sharp, real-world insights into:

• Why AI can’t magically erase tech debt—but how it can accelerate clean-up when used with strong engineering fundamentals
• How to clean up messy, siloed “data swamps” and unlock the real value of AI
• Why human-in-the-loop oversight is still essential when scaling AI systems
• The growing role of AIOps platforms like Dynatrace, New Relic, and Datadog in identifying bottlenecks before they break things
• The pros and cons of today’s AI-powered developer tools such as GitHub Copilot, CodeWhisperer, Tabnine, Replit Ghostwriter, and Cursor AI
• The future of intelligent CI/CD, observability, and how to build AI-ready, resilient platforms without cutting corners

Whether you’re a CTO, software architect, DevOps lead, or ML engineer, this conversation cuts through the AI hype and delivers pragmatic advice for integrating AI into modern engineering workflows.

Perfect for anyone looking to stay ahead in an age where GenAI, LLMs, and AI-assisted development are fast becoming the new normal.