The Agile movement, which fosters close collaboration between technology and business teams, is undergoing an intriguing evolution. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to play a key role in keeping everyone aligned and freeing up developers and IT professionals to focus more on the operations of the business. The impact of AI on Agile is poised to be the most significant development in the history of Agile.
The influence of AI on Agile is a two-way street — just as AI impacts Agile, the Agile principles are essential to building and running AI systems. When used in combination, AI and Agile have the potential to significantly enhance software design and development processes. AI brings teams closer together, facilitating faster access to information, more streamlined workflows, and automated processes.
One of the most significant advantages of AI-powered collaboration is the time it gives back to tech teams and users. AI acts as a superpower collaborator, providing new ways of thinking and diverse perspectives to discussions. This breadth of perspectives can result in more innovative and higher quality outcomes. Many IT professionals are exploring the potential of AI-enhanced collaboration as AI-powered automation simplifies and accelerates their work and fosters greater collaboration across teams.
AI is eliminating monotonous administrative tasks in software development, such as creating technical diagrams, interpreting code, and summarizing content. This enables teams to allocate more time to innovation and collaboration, fostering deeper research into consumer behavior trends and eliminating human research biases. AI also plays a crucial role in change management, ensuring that AI tools are utilized thoughtfully, and that proper training is in place to prevent challenges down the road.
However, AI also brings risks, particularly with regard to data quality and integrity. If misapplied or with poor data, AI can cause serious consequences such as business disruptions, compromised data integrity, and customer dissatisfaction. Lee predicts that technology products and services will increasingly incorporate generative AI capabilities in the next 12 months, introducing conversational ways of working with and creating technologies. This will offer Agile teams actionable insights, pinpoint risks, and provide recommendations to resolve problems.
