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Matt Stauffer

Speaker background pattern Matt Stauffer

CEO

@Tighten Co.

Matt Stauffer is the founder and CEO of Tighten, a web development consultancy specialising in Laravel.

He is the author of Laravel: Up & Running (O'Reilly), hosts podcasts covering Laravel, business, and pragmatic AI, and writes regularly at mattstauffer.com.

Matt speaks at conferences around the world on software development, leadership, and the Laravel ecosystem.

@mattstauffer

Talk Category: Technical

Keeping Your Taste

As AI becomes responsible for more of the code we write, the developer's role is beginning to change. Generating code is becoming easier. Knowing whether that code is good is becoming more important.

This talk explores how developers can maintain their standards when AI is doing most of the typing. It focuses on recognising what is worth protecting, what can be delegated, and how to guide AI toward solutions that reflect good engineering, thoughtful architecture, and strong user experiences.
We'll explore how AI shifts the developer's role from writing every line of code to directing, reviewing, shaping, and refining the work.

Along the way, we'll cover practical techniques for improving AI-assisted development, including better prompts, project-specific agent instructions, team standards, review processes, and turning every moment of "I don't like how it did that" into a stronger standard for the future.

The discussion extends beyond syntax and implementation details into maintainability, clarity, long-term code health, and user experience.
You'll leave with a clearer understanding of your role in an AI-assisted development workflow and greater confidence in your responsibility as the final reviewer of quality.

You'll learn practical approaches for defining standards, improving prompts over time, reviewing generated code effectively, and distinguishing between preferences that genuinely matter and those that don't.
Ideal for developers already using AI-assisted development, developers concerned about the impact of AI on code quality, and technical leaders looking to introduce AI without lowering standards.

No AI expertise is required—just a desire to keep building great software when the machine can type faster than we can.
View Schedule.

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