<description>&lt;p&gt;When code gets cheaper to produce, feedback becomes the limiting factor - CI, reviews, and the handoffs between tools can quietly slow everything down.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rob Zuber breaks down what platform engineers are seeing as teams adopt AI-assisted development: more branch builds, new failure modes, and growing pressure to shorten the loop between “change made” and “change validated.” He focuses on how CI can evolve from a human-first dashboard into a system that agents can interact with directly through APIs, CLIs, and MCP-style interfaces - so fixes can happen faster and with less waiting on manual triage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Along the way, Rob and Cory dig into practical questions engineering leaders are wrestling with: how PR review becomes the next major bottleneck, what “agent experience” means in a delivery pipeline, why speed isn’t only about faster compute (it’s also about doing less unnecessary work), and how teams can share learnings so “agentic velocity” doesn’t only benefit a few power users.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you’re building or running the systems that ship software, this is a clear look at where CI fits in an AI-accelerated workflow, and what needs to change to keep delivery safe, fast, and sustainable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guest: &lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robzuber/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Rob Zuber&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;, Chief Technology Officer at CircleCI&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rob Zuber is a 20-year veteran of software startups, a four-time founder, and three-time CTO. Since joining CircleCI, Rob has seen the company through its Series F funding and delivered on product innovation at scale while leading a team of 300+ engineers who are distributed around the globe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://circleci.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;CircleCI, Website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/circleci/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;CircleCI, LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://github.com/circleci" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;CircleCI, GitHub&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Links to interesting things from this episode:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://circleci.com/podcast/confident-commit/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;“The Confident Commit” podcast &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.wardleymaps.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Wardley Mapping&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://qz.com/646467/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;“How one programmer broke the internet by deleting a tiny piece of code.”&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br/&gt;</description>

Platform Engineering Podcast

Cory O'Daniel, CEO of Massdriver

Continuous Integration at Agentic Velocity with CircleCI’s Rob Zuber

JUN 10, 202650 MIN
Platform Engineering Podcast

Continuous Integration at Agentic Velocity with CircleCI’s Rob Zuber

JUN 10, 202650 MIN

Description

When code gets cheaper to produce, feedback becomes the limiting factor - CI, reviews, and the handoffs between tools can quietly slow everything down.Rob Zuber breaks down what platform engineers are seeing as teams adopt AI-assisted development: more branch builds, new failure modes, and growing pressure to shorten the loop between “change made” and “change validated.” He focuses on how CI can evolve from a human-first dashboard into a system that agents can interact with directly through APIs, CLIs, and MCP-style interfaces - so fixes can happen faster and with less waiting on manual triage.Along the way, Rob and Cory dig into practical questions engineering leaders are wrestling with: how PR review becomes the next major bottleneck, what “agent experience” means in a delivery pipeline, why speed isn’t only about faster compute (it’s also about doing less unnecessary work), and how teams can share learnings so “agentic velocity” doesn’t only benefit a few power users.If you’re building or running the systems that ship software, this is a clear look at where CI fits in an AI-accelerated workflow, and what needs to change to keep delivery safe, fast, and sustainable.Guest: Rob Zuber, Chief Technology Officer at CircleCIRob Zuber is a 20-year veteran of software startups, a four-time founder, and three-time CTO. Since joining CircleCI, Rob has seen the company through its Series F funding and delivered on product innovation at scale while leading a team of 300+ engineers who are distributed around the globe.CircleCI, WebsiteCircleCI, LinkedInCircleCI, GitHubLinks to interesting things from this episode:“The Confident Commit” podcast Wardley Mapping“How one programmer broke the internet by deleting a tiny piece of code.”